tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18553404014812802942024-03-14T05:45:42.019-05:00Higher Ed AssessmentThis blog is published on most Saturdays.Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.comBlogger263125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-43310432122430963452010-08-01T08:00:00.002-05:002010-08-01T08:00:08.070-05:00Blog Break to Labor Day<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">It's time to take a late-summer break while campuses wind down... and then wind back up. Blog will be back after Labor Day. ~ Mary Bold</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-16349052468846629242010-07-29T00:01:00.005-05:002010-07-29T00:01:01.428-05:00Tech note: Apps for tiny devices<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color:#000000;">The actual apps are so varied that it's hard to take in the whole and plan use in higher ed. But there's no doubt that Apple's app library is being accessed by faculty (K-12, too) for either assignments or tools. The key word is library--Apple's apps are broadly organized and we'll soon see a convergence: everything we learned in building learning object repositories and everything we are now learning about cross-platform applications. Emphasis is on apps that fit on tiny devices.<br /><br />For a broad view, visit <strong><a href="http://www.apple.com/education/apps/#apps-by-subject" target="blank">Apple's web page on education apps</a></strong>. Top of page has links by subject; below that are links by function.</span><br /><br /></span></span><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-50342526949485094152010-07-28T00:01:00.005-05:002010-07-28T00:01:01.196-05:00Mapping and other Presentation Methods<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">What's on the radar of <strong><a href="http://www.visual-literacy.org/pages/maps/mapping_tools_radar/radar.html" target="blank">Mapping Tools in Overview</a></strong>: Visual Literacy provides that in a radar screen with hyperlinks to products (mix of commercial and open source). The tools are described briefly in mouse-over tags. The radar presentation is clever, which is to be expected from <strong><a href="http://www.visual-literacy.org/" target="blank">Visual-Literacy.org</a></strong>, the folks who also remind us of the range of possibilities in presenting information. That is best represented by the <strong><a href="http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html#" target="blank">Periodic Table of Visualization Methods</a></strong>. Don't expect to leave that webpage in a hurry.</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-71059052178088326062010-07-27T00:01:00.010-05:002010-07-27T00:01:01.801-05:00From the UK: Delivering Student Workshops<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Besides having won awards, <strong><a href="http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/videoresources" target="blank">LearnHigher's Resources for Tutors Delivering Student Workshops</a></strong> is just plain fun. It's a set of video resources for anyone planning to teach nearly anyone. Geared for tutors and teachers in higher ed, there's much that can be translated for community and K-12 education.<br /><br />Topics include Report Writing, Note Taking, Time Management, Academic Writing. A resource on Assessment is a little different from the larger set. Coming soon: Doing Research and more.<br /><br />Each resource presents guides, tips, activities, FAQs, and a couple of experts on video. A slide for online resources suggests that materials can be updated in the future, with or without renewing the video segments. The producers are from LearnHigher Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), which partners 16 UK universities.<br /></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-30473319689546230012010-07-22T00:01:00.007-05:002010-07-22T00:01:01.337-05:00Tech Note: CDW-G's Latest Survey<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">CDW-G has published its third annual report on campus technology, highlighting comparisons between faculty, student, and IT opinions as to what's needed to support higher ed learning. The long title is <strong><a href="http://newsroom.cdwg.com/features/feature-07-19-10.html#Findings" target="blank">21st-Century Campus Report: Campus 2.0</a></strong> but the key findings are neatly presented. The one combination of results that caught my eye: e-readers are coming to campus.<br /><br /></span></span><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-13988267913586118432010-07-21T00:01:00.006-05:002010-07-21T00:01:01.546-05:00External Evaluators - Link to Germuth blog<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><strong><a href="http://www.evalthoughts.com/" target="blank">Amy Germuth's blog</a></strong> very recently served up a think piece on the benefits of using an external evaluator (see Germuth's entry of July 16, 2010). It would be fun to ask Dr. Germuth about the downsides of hiring someone external even though she is an evaluation consultant and thus very likely in that role much of the time. Her blog is insightful—I especially like the mention of identifying unintended outcomes.<br /><br />Germuth's blog, Evalthoughts, goes back several years. The archives make for good leisure reading for an evaluator.</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-27827633615711747132010-07-20T00:01:00.009-05:002010-07-20T00:01:00.927-05:00Indicator for Colleges: Healthy Employment in the State<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Placing higher ed economics in the context of (general population) employment projections relies on confidence in the statistics. In light of the economic downturn, projections are challenging but its reasonable to connect a college's future to its state's employment figures. The <em>Chronicle</em>'s recent story on <em><strong><a href="http://chronicle.com/article/For-Colleges-in-Some-States/66274/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en" target="blank">Financial Relief</a></strong></em> for colleges based its context on numbers from <strong><a href="http://www.economy.com/default.asp" target="blank">Moody's Economy.com</a></strong>. The story's power comes from an interactive map that permits you to look at individual years to 2014. The most startling of the projections is how many states will enjoy healthy employment rates before 2012: just three (Texas, North Dakota, Alaska).</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-35198618033206770572010-07-15T00:01:00.007-05:002010-07-15T00:01:00.378-05:00Tech Note: Blackboard's new Collaborate tool<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Spending no time comparing the product names Adobe <em>Connect</em> and Blackboard <em>Collaborate</em>, this blog entry is about the recent announcement of Blackboard's purchase of Elluminate and Wimba, arguably the most affordable of the webconferencing platforms used in education. Note: I don't receive any compensation from the companies mentioned here.<br /><br />Blackboard has purchased other companies before and will surely buy more, in future. To buy two of the same type, at the same time, draws special attention, especially from the companies' current clients. Forum discussion at LearnCentral is example. LearnCentral is the virtual community of Elluminute users. Some of those users are at institutions that subscribe to Elluminate; others come to the space as individual customers of vRooms, the free 3-person meeting spaces; still others are paying customers of vOffice, which offers meeting spaces for 10+ people at a couple of hundred bucks per year.<br /><br />It's the holders of free accounts speaking up first. They wonder how long it will take Bb to shut down their access to the Elluminate tools as <em>Collaborate</em> takes shape, this worry emerging amid corporate assurances of "no immediate changes." Suspicion about future access increases as LearnCentral reps in the forum respond to questions with the ominous words, "hopefully" and "I am hopeful." The promise of plenty of advance notice of future changes doesn't add to anyone's sense of security.<br /><br />Blackboard's expansion of products has been steady over the past decade. Adding web-conference capability was an expected next step. And the success of Elluminate and Wimba in creating synchronous online classrooms makes Bb's interest in them understandable.<br /><br />Expected and understandable pretty much sums up the situation. What comes next? I'd guess that dimdim and similar platforms will inherit some of the "free" users of Elluminate. And Adobe <em>Connect Now</em>'s free 3-user space may be adopted by a lot more people.</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-71457114345467738262010-07-14T00:01:00.004-05:002010-07-14T00:01:01.523-05:00ASCD Lexicon of Learning<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">The ASCD web site offers a <strong><a href="http://ascd.org/Publications/Lexicon-of-Learning/Lexicon-of-Learning.aspx" target="blank">Lexicon of Learning</a></strong>, subtitled Online Dictionary and described with "What Educators Mean When They Say..." Organized into "chapters" of starting letters, the Lexicon includes common K-12 terminology but also assessment lingo.<br /><br />ASCD is the membership organization of educators that provides professional development though its 60 affiliates (worldwide) and its online courses. Membership is 170,000.</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-23145217295142493552010-07-13T00:01:00.007-05:002010-07-13T00:01:00.601-05:00Rubric Grading: 2010 Awards<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">A top award for 2010 from the Sloan-C organization has high value for assessment, especially when compared to the 2010 CHEA award. Sloan-C recognized Metropolitan State University (MN) for <strong><a href="http://www.sloanconsortium.org/effective_practices/quotautomaticquot-gradesheets-holy-grail-simultaneously-improving-faculty-and-st" target="blank">Automatic gradesheets: A Holy Grail for simultaneously improving faculty and student satisfaction</a></strong>. Using familiar tools of Word and Excel, the institution has set about systematically converting grading to "automatic" rubrics to speed grading and reduce students' wait for feedback. Besides utilizing a rubric structure, the gradesheets provide for efficient entry of a professor's most common remarks. The gradesheets are customizable, besides.<br /><br />With standardization of rubrics and scoring styles, this type of support by an institution is win-win-win for student learning, professor grading, and institutional effectiveness. When the rubric is part of an LMS, ease of use can include point-and-click (using a mouse click to select a cell in a rubric) and conversion of rubric scoring to the LMS gradebook. Embedded rubrics reduce the number of clicks (and file transfers) needed to review student papers. I like BrainHoney's LMS structure for grading. Very similar: eportfolio software such as TaskStream that provides automated rubrics as well as "on the fly" mark-up and/or track-changes to student works without having to download the file.<br /><br />As previously described in <strong><a href="http://higheredassessment.blogspot.com/2010/02/chea-award-student-learning-outcomes.html" target="blank">this blog</a></strong>, CHEA's 2010 award went to Capella University for its demonstration of outcomes assessment. The Capella grading system utilizes embedded and automated rubrics that not only speed up grading but also populate the gradebook automatically and report on outcomes across multiple sections of a course and even across courses for program outcomes.</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-71117349863306237462010-07-08T00:01:00.004-05:002010-07-08T00:01:00.258-05:00Tech Note for MAC<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">If you use a MAC, you already know Preview, Apple's default app for viewing PDF files. For handling PDFs in more sophisticated fashion, you can turn to <strong><a href="http://www.ironicsoftware.com/yep/index.html" target="blank">Yep</a></strong>. That's right. Only MAC users would have software called Yep.<br /><br />Actually, the newer version of the document manager is Yep 2. The company also produces Fresh and Deep and Leap. The software permits you to add tags, organize, and retrieve works easily. Yep handles only PDFs so full description of each app should be reviewed. These are not free apps and also not open source, but the tone and sense of community on the Ironic Software web site make you feel like you joined a club.</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-18742418167107551472010-07-07T00:01:00.005-05:002010-07-07T00:01:01.755-05:00Dan Roam: Visual Thinking<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Visual thinking is a Tufte-like (see yesterday's post for Tufte items) approach to communicating ideas. Dan Roam of Digital Roam presents his method for and on "the back of the napkin" both in a blog and a seminar. This particular link to the <strong><a href="http://digitalroam.typepad.com/digital_roam/2010/03/the-entire-history-of-humans-and-visual-thinking-in-5-min-from-my-sxsw-talk.html" target="blank">blog</a></strong> is from March 2010, which embeds a short video clip of Roam speaking on the 32,000-year history of humans and their visual thinking.</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-18206632153723522352010-07-06T00:01:00.006-05:002010-07-06T00:01:00.114-05:00Revisiting Tufte<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Edward Tufte's <strong><a href="http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/index" target="blank">web site</a></strong> deserves a re-visit every now and then. I have highlighted two pages here but the entire site is always a rewarding tour. All Tufte books are worth putting on your bookshelf; the best way to collect them is at Tufte's one-day course in Presenting Data and Information. The books are bundled into the cost of the seminar. (I've been twice. Years afterward, I still carry sharp memories of certain parts of Tufte's presentation.)<br /><br />Tufte gets a gallery. It's in Manhattan. See photos on this web page for <strong><a href="http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0003h7&topic_id=1&topic=Ask+E.T." target="blank">ET Modern</a></strong>.<br /><br />Tufte doesn't get a royalty for a special element in the new Excel—but the web page on <strong><a href="http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0003Y1&topic_id=1&topic=Ask+E.T." target="blank">sparklines</a></strong> makes for interesting reading.<br /><br />If you have not yet used sparklines in representing data in a report, make it your 2010 new technique. (You don't have to have the new Excel to create sparklines. Lots of free generators on the web, including several links from Tufte's web site.)</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-80721042586630703062010-07-01T00:01:00.005-05:002010-07-01T00:01:02.234-05:00Tech Note: Free LMS<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Large scale deployment? I don't know. But <strong><a href="http://www.edu20.org/" target="blank">EDU 2.0</a></strong> is a fine, free LMS for educators. My favorite use: a practice LMS for graduate students learning to teach online.<br /><br />Technically, EDU 2.0 is a freemium service, meaning that the base part is free and more advanced features (premium) can be added for a fee.</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-24184593950818622902010-06-30T00:01:00.010-05:002010-06-30T00:01:00.800-05:00Short, Basic, but Usable: On Logic Models<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">It's basic but basic is good. The evaluation firm <strong><a href="http://www.usablellc.net/" target="blank">Usable Knowledge</a></strong>, which serves the nonprofit world, maintains its 2006 narrated slideshow called <strong><a href="http://www.usablellc.net/resources/logic-model-tutorial" target="blank">Logic Model Tutorial</a></strong> on its web site.<br /><br />At just under 15 minutes, the tutorial makes the lesson easy to make the time for. The main web site is actually a blog, with entries as recent as Spring 2010.</span></span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-80496110435819318312010-06-28T01:01:00.009-05:002010-06-28T01:01:00.652-05:00AEA Blog: Daily in 2010<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">To my knowledge, no calendar publisher has created a desk pad for <em>An Eval Tip a Day for 2010.</em> But AEA did. Online.<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://aea365.org/blog/" target="blank">AEA365A Tip-a-Day by and for Evaluators</a></strong> is a daily blog that's made it through the halfway point for 2010. As you might guess from the title, the blog is written by a large number of people. Contributions come from literally around the world although you'll pick up on some regular posts by AEA staff, as well.<br /><br />Go to the Archive to scan the titles. That's how I found Canadian social researcher Linda Lee's essay on use of visual methods in evaluation. (See the June 17 entry on the blog site.) Of course, you can also simply keep up with AEA365. Every day.<br /><br />The blog is published by the American Evaluation Association (AEA).<br /></span></span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-32392478750587342472010-06-24T00:01:00.005-05:002010-06-24T00:01:00.516-05:00Tech Note: Support for College Readiness and Completion<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Proposals forms are not available yet, but EDUCAUSE, the Gates Foundation, and a couple of other partners promise to support "islands of innovation" in the goal to utilize technology for college success—in terms of college readiness and college completion. That's the goal of the <strong><a href="http://nextgenlearning.com/" target="blank">Next Gen Learning Challenges</a></strong>. Projects that demonstrate promise will then be "scaled," and presumably help to address the core challenge: producing more college graduates to meet the next decade's workforce needs.<br /><br />As anyone connected to higher ed today will testify, the current budget cuts on campuses both public and private would suggest that larger student bodies are not likely. The planners behind Next Gen see technology as the answer, with four challenges for focus: open core courseware, web 2.0 engagement, blended learning, and learning analytics.<br /><br />What caught my eye in the background materials: The League for Innovation in the Community Colleges is a partner. That bodes well for the project. Belle Wheelan, president of SACS, serves on the Advisory Panel. And a representative from Creative Commons, Joi Ito, also serves. There are plenty more participants, of course. But I liked seeing these especially.</span></span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-61553977460360777502010-06-23T00:01:00.006-05:002010-06-23T00:01:00.807-05:00Higher Ed Learning at Wallenberg Hall<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Stanford University's research into higher ed teaching and learning is best known as <strong><a href="http://wallenberg.stanford.edu/index.html" target="blank">Wallenberg Hall</a></strong>. At least, that's the physical house for Advanced Resource Classrooms. Having visited a few of those rooms, I will cheerfully admit that I purchased 6 chairs (an award-winning Steelcase design) for grad students in copying a Stanford classroom set-up.<br /><br />The driving force behind the physical structure is the H-STAR Institute for interdisciplinary research and, more specifically, SCIL. That stands for Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning. For a quick overview of the projects, use the <strong><a href="http://wallenberg.stanford.edu/research/index.html" target="blank">Research Programs</a></strong> link at the Wallenberg site.</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-70278694428497227502010-06-22T00:01:00.006-05:002010-06-22T00:01:01.815-05:00AFT Higher Education: What Should Count?<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Light on comments (by readers), but wide in scope, the website <strong><a href="http://www.whatshouldcount.org/" target="blank">What Should Count?</a></strong> covers many topics on higher ed accountability. Short reports and essays include "news" from HE institutions and, of special interest, conferences. The publisher is "AFT Higher Education," of the American Federation of Teachers.<br /><br />The portion of the site I found most valuable: Accountability Clearinghouse (link is on the horizontal green menu bar beneath the masthead). There, you'll find helpful analyses of issues and some comparisons of the 6 regional accrediting agencies. For example, how do the big 6 differ on expectations for contingent faculty? The trail is worth the read.<br /><br />But the trail deserves a warning. The website uses roll-over-and-pop-up menus, the kind that are sometimes hard to control. I recommend keeping fingers at the ready to right-click and Open in New Window. Then, you can stay on a topic for full exploration without having to re-enter the menu sequence.<br /><br /></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-16723037554848476912010-06-17T00:01:00.005-05:002010-06-17T00:01:01.371-05:00Tech Note: Entering and Exiting Clouds<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Cloud computing isn't news anymore. And that's the cue to institutionalize it (meaning, in this case, embed it in the <em>HE institution</em>).<br /><br />EDUCAUSE suggests that <strong><a href="http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/PUB9009.pdf" target="blank">Shaping the Higher Education Cloud</a></strong> means dealing with what can be left to "consumer choice," what can be outsourced, and what can reside on the campus. That leads to a couple of new terms: premises-based and cloud-based, to refer to the services that range from applications (Word, Excel, and more exotic scientific programs) to repositories (libaries, databases, textbooks, research collaboration spaces).<br /><br />The EDUCAUSE white paper reports on the thinking by 50 IT leaders in early 2010. Standardization, cost, flexibility—all are addressed. A section on Actions (beginning page 17) points out that some schools have already moved student email to commercial clouds. But that maybe some functions (enrollment or registration) deserve more caution.<br /><br />There's likely something to be learned from the last decade's increasing reliance on LMS services. Although an LMS isn't what most people first think of when dreaming about the potential of clouds, it is actually already a good case for comparison. Institutions made premise versus outsourced decisions about LMSs and then realized how dependent they were on the source, wherever it was. The EDUCAUSE paper doesn't make the comparison to LMSs but does raise the need for exit plans. At least now, clouds offer elasticity (expand and contract as needed). That doesn't mean that in the future a commercial cloud will tolerate the risk of less business. So, reliance on any system becomes the issue.<br /><br />The IT thinking behind the EDUCAUSE paper concludes with 13 recommendations (beginning page 24) that are not so technical that they exclude the lay reader. In fact, administrators and faculty should want to help with the shaping, starting now.<br /><br />On the more anecdotal level, here's a brief report on how an iPad acts around Live Office's SkyDrive. Excel and OneNote files created in the Microsoft cloud (from a laptop) were stored in the "SkyDrive," which is the user's personal 25-gigabyte file cabinet. Accessing the office.live.com site from the iPad is easy, using the same username and password as on the computer. The account shows the files. The Excel file opens as a read-only display. About the only functionality is the iPad's copy/paste option. A set of cells in Excel copies nicely to a Notes page. Alas, the OneNote files do not open at all on the iPad. That's going to take some sleuthing.</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-62714475942878271592010-06-16T00:01:00.005-05:002010-06-16T00:01:01.980-05:00AALHE: new organization, new web site<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">The new web site of the new assessment organization, <strong><a href="http://aalhe.org/" target="blank">AALHE</a></strong>, is beginning to populate. AALHE stands for Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education. With the focus clearly stated, the organization promises to lean heavily on its "largely virtual design" to reach its audience. That said, much of the web site content will be open to "members and non-members alike."<br /><br />Membership (not yet executable online) is $120 per individual, or $105 per user if at least 3 from an institution enroll. Membership will provide a discount (amount not yet announced) at the AALHE first annual conference in June 2011.<br /><br /></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-32809909978844755092010-06-15T00:01:00.004-05:002010-06-15T00:01:00.691-05:00Google Calendar: Keeping up with Ed Tech<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><a href="http://ow.ly/YB90" target="blank"><strong>Ed Tech Events</strong></a>, a google calendar, is organized by Clark Shah-Nelson to serve as a guide to the many conferences on educational technology. Shah-Nelson is the Coordinator of Online Education at SUNY-Delhi.<br /><br />The calendar entries link to pop-up notes with factoids and (typically) URLs for more information. For some, you will need to click twice, through a More Info link and then to a web site.<br /><br />The google calendar opens nicely on the iPhone and iPad, with full hyperlinking function from the conference entries.<br /><br />Thanks to the short URL [<strong><a href="http://ow.ly/YB90" target="blank">http://ow.ly/YB90</a></strong>], the calendar can be quickly accessed by plain old typing.<br /></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-28339544465260645282010-06-10T01:08:00.007-05:002010-06-10T01:08:00.075-05:00Tech Note: Web Apps for Office<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">You just may need to add one more user name to your roster. It's to take a drive through Microsoft's sky. Productivity just inched up a notch.<br /><br />If you have enjoyed the development over the years of Google Docs and Spreadsheets, you are likely to cheer loudly at the Microsoft offering that brings on Excel, OneNote, Word, and Powerpoint. The major cheer: you won't have to watch them develop. They're already running smoothly.<br /><br />I'll spend the next few weeks reviewing the sub-parts (on Thursdays) as I explore them. My immediate purpose is to create items on a laptop and access them on iPad and iPhone.<br /><br />Here are the beginning points, not all of them wonderful:<br /><br />1 - Microsoft has placed lite versions of its Office applications on the web. They are literally "web apps," meaning that users do not have to have Office on their hard drives. Users can access the web apps via a browser. (I usually call this type of program <em>RIA,</em> rich Internet application.) Not wonderful: file-opening and saving must be through the SkyDrive and not directly with the hard drive.<br /><br />2 - Users can create (from scratch) a Word doc, an Excel spreadsheet, a PowerPoint presentation, and a OneNote entry. At present, they can also share works in Excel and OneNote--meaning, share them with other users for co-writing. Not wonderful: sharing is not yet available in Word and PowerPoint.<br /><br />3 - These web apps are free. Not wonderful: you must learn more names. <em>Microsoft Live</em> is located at <em>office.live</em>, and requires a <em>Windows Live ID.</em> I'm sorry, but I'm getting old.<br /><br />To underscore the major finding: the web apps work very smoothly. Development will center on addition of features, not on improvement of usability. And that will make me open a new browser window, rather than just follow my old path from gmail to Documents.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Disclosure statement: I have not received any compensation for mentioning this service. (This blog's only monetary reward comes through google.adsense links, which are selected by Google, not by me.)<br /></span></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-1315204464322154242010-06-09T00:01:00.005-05:002010-06-09T00:01:01.040-05:00ePortfolio via Wiki and Blog<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><strong><a href="http://epac.pbworks.com/" target="blank">EPAC</a></strong>* is a free site devoted to the study of ePortfolios. Located at pbwiki, EPAC includes discussions and announcements by and about leading practitioners of portfolio technology. The organization also posts to a <strong><a href="http://epaccop.blogspot.com/" target="blank">blog, EPAC Community of Practice</a></strong>.<br /><br />EPAC also maintains a listserv, twitter feed, LinkedIn group, chats, webcasts.<br /><br />*EPAC = Electronic Portfolio Action and Communication, a community of practice since 2002.</span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855340401481280294.post-80932361907764149552010-06-08T00:01:00.007-05:002010-06-08T00:01:00.546-05:00ePortfolio Conference: AAEEBL in July<p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="mm1j11" class="western"><span id="mm1j12" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="mm1j13" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Formed in 2009, <strong><a href="http://www.aaeebl.org/" target="blank">AAEEBL</a></strong>* has acted quickly to establish itself as the leading source of eportfolio knowledge and support. The global orgnization has 90 member institutions (the great majority in the U.S.) and an annual conference. Not bad for a history of one year.<br /><br />The upcoming conference in Boston (July 19-22, 2010) is actually a joint conference with the well established <strong><a href="http://events.campustechnology.com/events/ct-2010/home.aspx" target="blank">Campus Technology annual event</a></strong> (nee Syllabus) now in its 17th year. Having both in close quarters, and sharing an exhibit hall, is one of the better examples of in-person event planning in this decade.<br /><br />Cost of this conference, similar to most technology gatherings, is painful. Early bird discounting offers a bit of relief, ending June 18.<br /><br />*<strong><a href="http://www.aaeebl.org/" target="blank">AAEEBL</a></strong> = The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning: The professional association for the world ePortfolio community<br /></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" id="uxzy" class="western"><span id="uxzy0" style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:78%;"><span id="mm1j31">© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (<a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.marybold.com/" target="_blank">http://www.marybold.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.boldproductions.com/" target="_blank">http://www.boldproductions.com/</a>, <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://collegeinternblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">College Intern Blog</a>) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship</span>, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.</span></span></p>Mary Boldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02158557821399037664noreply@blogger.com0