Posts Tagged 'YouTube'

Have you ever wanted to know how many people use the Internet, what they use it for, etc?  Well, in less that four minutes, you can watch this well done video and get a great summary of what happens online on a daily basis:

Well, it has been a while, hasn’t it?  Again.  Apparently, I have had a busy fall …

I gave a presentation at the 8th Hawaii International Conference on Education a couple of days ago, and it was called “Putting a Face on E-Learning: A Strategy to Integrate Faculty Videos into YouTube, iTunes U and a Virtual Learning Environment.”  The primary focus of my talk was to help provide some “big picture” thoughts on how faculty can work with the rest of the university (administration, marketing, etc) to help ensure long-term success.  If you are interested, you can download my presentation here.

Well, after a lot of testing, crashing, uploading, fixing, more testing and more uploading (yeesh!), I now have a full set of course videos created for RELS311 Introduction to the Bible!  Some of them are classroom specific, but most are publicly available (and will also be available as podcasts on iTunes U).  If you are curious, I have posted the course introduction video below:

In addition, I have created a “Course Videos” page that will be periodically updated with new videos, etc.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to give me ideas for new course resources!

Working in a field that is “cutting edge” (relatively speaking) such as online education, e-learning, etc can sometimes feel like playing with a double-edged sword.  Not that I have actually used such a sword in real-life (and I haven’t used a light sabre either, unfortunately).  But my point is this – in any field that is characterized by innovation and growth, it is sometimes tempting to use a “new tool” simply because it is there.  There is something cool about being one of the first to do something (eg, first to use YouTube, Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc).  However, there is also a downside to leading the way – sometimes we choose tools, resources, etc that do not work out as advertised, partly because no one else has field-tested them yet.

So … to help you navigate this process, I recommend that you read this brief article called “Web 2.0 Selection Criteria: Save Time Choosing an Appropriate Tool“, that lists five specific criteria that are relevant to online education.  Also, go over to Go2Web20 and browse their list of resources – it is quite informative and helpful.

Have fun being innovative!

I need your help.    I am creating a series of brief video podcasts for some of my classes at AMU, in order to help students focus on the key topics and ideas each week.  However, before I create a whole bunch and make them available to my students, I would appreciate getting some feedback first.

So … if you could watch this Week 1 video for Introduction to the Bible and then give me some constructive criticism, feedback, advice, etc, that would be great.  Thanks!

Mark

Looking ahead to the rest of the new year that just started (yippee!) … how do you plan to stay connected with friends, colleagues, news, etc?  With so many relationships to manage in so many different contexts, how do you (and how do I)  keep up to date?

Personally, I find myself using email, Facebook, podcasts (video) and news sites most frequently.  Each one has advantages and disadvantages, but using them together seems to be relatively effective at nurturing existing relationships, and finding/forming new ones.  It is tough to stay connected with everyone, though, isn’t it?

With so many “relationships”, it is often hard to invest enough energy into the important ones.  If there is a flaw in the new world of online social networking (and yes, there just might be a flaw or two!), it is that managing  lots of superficial relationships is a lot easier than investing in a few deep relationships.  When we live behind a screen, whether on our desk or in our hand, it seems that we often drift away from the rich and transparent friendships that we each need.

So how is this for a good January challenge – send a friend a message with a pen and paper (remember those?) rather than a few keystrokes. 

How about you?  How to you plan to stay connected in 2009?

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