iSean

i’ve met a new colleague at GVSU named Charlie Lowe. Charlie is writing professor and he is also an open source geek (like me) and that’s how a person in IT got us connected. well as it turns out, Charlie is very involved in helping educators shift to using Drupal if that’s what they want to do. as you can tell from reading back in my blog, i made the decision to start using Drupal this semester early in the summer. i was well on my way — errrr — actually, i was pretty far from realizing some of the potential of Drupal. when you start using a tool and you aren’t sure of its potential, you sometimes have a difficult time figuring out what you don’t know . . . fortunately, that’s where Charlie comes in.

earlier this month, i met Bill Fitzgerald online at openacademic.org. he provided me with some guidance for using Drupal. little did i know at the time, but he works very closely with Charlie on a resource called drupaled.org, which is a resource i had been exploring for months now. Charlie has hooked me up with a bunch of other educators who are using Drupal and I am well on my way to using this tool more effectively in my teaching. whew!

one of the nice things they are working on at drupaled.org and at Bill’s funnymonkey.com is that they want to create an education distribution for Drupal so that an educator or an education institution could download and install a pre configured Drupal site. from experience, i can attest that most mere mortals would never be able to install Drupal and customize it for learning on their own. in fact, i am a geek and i needed a lot of help along the way just to save some time that i didn’t have — and i started months ago (loosely, of course). so, when the distribution is ready in the future, a teacher or an education institution will be able to download a pre configured Drupal site that is customized for education and that has much documentation to provide guidance. what a terrific treat that will be for my students who often ask me about the tools i use in my teaching because they’d like to replicate things in their own future classrooms. kudos to the folks helping out the educational community.

Tags: drupal, online learning, education, funnymonkey, drupaled, openacademic, LMS

i am not a web designer by training, nor have i have spent much time learning about the intricacies of design. heck, i didn’t even stay at a holiday inn express last night. that being said, i think all educators are responsible for making their online learning content as accessible as is possible and that includes the design of the online materials we use. in that vein, i have always thought that black text on a white background is necessary on the web. i made no exceptions for the longest time. but, i have slowly decided that black text on a white background can have a darker background off to the side as seen here on my upcoming Drupal class website:

notice how i have dark blue around the edges? not much i admit, but the text is still black on white. my blog follows this principal as well. i notice many blogs have light text on a dark background and i think i get slightly annoyed when i see it, but only because i have ingrained in my head that this is bad design; not for any practical reason.

i had a display go bad on me recently. i bought a new dell 20 LCD and went about setting the desktop background (this is my secondary display as my main apple display is 22″, just FYI). i started thinking about the color of background that i’d use on the desktop and decided that a very dark (e.g., black) background would be best for the display because that uses less light (if any at all). come to think of it, a white background is really like turning on a light behind the screen — that can’t be as good for the display in the long run. a screen is not like paper because a screen is illuminated. i wonder how pleasing that is to our eyes to stare all day at illuminated screens? that got me to pondering things.

further, i use a tool on my Mac called TextMate for my text editing needs (particularly Ruby and web programming). i have found that i particularly enjoy the inverted colors for my text documents as seen in this file i am working on:

now i obviously use multiple colors, which helps me to see various elements of the file more easily, but i really like staring at the darker screen for long periods of time and i tried a white background with colors as well.

i even came across a blog that discusses using dark backgrounds and states:

When reversing color out, e.g., white text on black, make sure you increase the leading, tracking and decrease your font-weight. This applies to all widths of Measure. White text on a black background is a higher contrast to the opposite, so the letterforms need to be wider apart, lighter in weight and have more space between the lines.

i am not sure i know how to decrease a font’s weight from the default . . . actually much of what is stated on that blog is pretty easy to do in MS Word, but not as easy on a website. but, at least that’s a guide to try and figure out.

i am not arguing that one style is better than another; rather, i am just noting that many tools we use these days have various themes that can be turned on and off and installed, etc. why not provide your users with some options for the theme that they most prefer? i’ll have to check through the literature to see whether i am off-base on this thinking.

Tags: web design, TextMate, typography, background, readability

unbelievable. here it is 2006 and installing a mySQL database is still not simple for the average joe (or sean in this case). i have the process down with my regular hosting company. it took me a while to figure out their intricacies, but once i did i was golden. and, bluehost (my preferred hosting company) also provide fantastico, which is an auto installer for many mySQL databases (e.g., WordPress, PHPBB forums, Drupal, Moodle, etc.). many folks in the know don’t recommend fantastico, but for people like me who like to experiment, fantastico is a fantastic way to fiddle with various tools very quickly.

anyway, i have various domain names. my ed205.com domain hosted by another popular company (iPowerWeb). they don’t make installing mySQL databases very easy compared to bluehost. maybe if i’d started with iPowerWeb then i’d think differently. hmmm. anyway, i’ve spent the last hour trying to get a Drupal installation to work and i am getting errors up the whazoo.

Warning: Table ‘ed205com_drupal.sessions’ doesn’t exist query: SELECT sid FROM sessions WHERE sid = ‘d796da670a79fd58aba93924eff2d6b0′ in /addresstoinstallonmysystem/drupal/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 120

Warning: Table ‘ed205com_drupal.users’ doesn’t exist query: SELECT u.* FROM users u WHERE u.uid = 0 in /addresstoinstallonmysystem/drupal/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 120

the warnings/errors continue for a few pages. i’ve dabbled that way and this way to no avail. i’ll now head off to the drupal forums looking for a solution to what i am doing wrong. when i installed this stuff on bluehost earlier this summer, i don’t even recall giving any part of the install a second thought. hmph!

i am just amazed that something so common is still something so difficult. yeah, fantastico is a step in the right direction, but as i mentioned earlier, folks in the know seem to think a fantastico install is not as secure and not as healthy in the long run.  i know nobody is purposefully making this stuff difficult, but when a guy like me has trouble like this, there is still a huge gap to overcome with regard to using this kind of technology. that’s unfortunate.

then again, i’ll probably post this and find my solution in the next 30 seconds . . . and, it’ll be something super simple. such is life. ;~)

the past year or more, i have been supplying my students with podcasts. my podcasts are typically a way to present lecture-type material in a different format than text. as most folks are aware, online classes tend to be more text heavy than not (of course there are exceptions). so, i provided my students with a choice between an mp3 or an iTunes mp4 (smaller file). well, about 1/2 choose each option. i tend to make the podcasts about 20 minutes. why 20 minutes, you ask? well, our campus is located about 11 miles from downtown Grand Rapids. the College of Education is located on the smaller downtown campus, but many of the students live out on or near the main campus. every so many minutes, a free shuttle bus runs between the 2 campuses. so, a student could grab my podcast and listen on the shuttle they ride to their downtown classes (or in their cars) and the podcast would fit neatly into that span. i even explain that this is what i’d do with the podcast(s). at the end of each week, i survey my students. one of the questions i ask is how they listened to my podcast. nearly every student responds that they listen on their computer. in fact, i think in the last year (maybe year and a half), i have had only 2 students listen on an mp3 player (e.g., iPod). now, i should mention that my podcasts tend to have visual aids that can accompany the podcasts, but i also make the podcast audio stand-alone. in other words, if i am referring to a website or a slide then i describe it well enough that the visual aid isn’t necessary. i do provide the supplementary visual aids to my students, but it’s more in an effort to help them not have to take extra notes.

so that brings me to a decision i am making this semester. i am going to switch to enhanced podcasts. my university just upgraded to Quicktime 7. QT 7 adds a new feature where you can have chapters in your podcast. i think this is the perfect feature to improve podcasting. and, i just recently bought a product for Macs called ProfCast (version 1.5). rather than explain it to you, here’s how the company describes their product:

ProfCast is the ideal tool for recording and publishing your live Keynote or PowerPoint presentation. All elements of your presentation, including slide timing and voice narration, are recorded. You can then publish your complete presentation on the Web as a Podcast, complete with RSS support.

• Live Presentation Recording
• Synchronized Slides with Audio
• RSS Generation for Podcasting
• Publishing support via FTP, SFTP and .Mac
• Integration with GarageBand 3
• Integration with iWeb
• Support for Audio Playthrough
• File Size Control

i don’t really like using PowerPoint, but i don’t want to avoid it when it can play a role and i think it can help to organize notes associated with a lecture, especially when pictures can be used more effectively than word descriptors. with ProfCast, i simply drag my presentation into the window and i can start recording. as i switch to a new slide, the chapter is automatically created.

Quicktime 7 will allow the chapters to be easily accessed. if a student is thumbing through the notes and wants a quick refresher, he/she doesn’t have to try and find it in the mp3 file since the chapter feature can quickly locate the audio associate with any particular slide.

one of the disadvantages of technology is how quickly things can get dated. my podcasts are going to fall by the wayside as i upgrade to enhanced podcasts. i’ve read how the development of an online course is the biggest hurdle. our university even provides money for folks to develop online courses; though, i’ve never taken any money for this (not until intellectual property rules get worked out anyway). but, folks who think the development ends when the class gets taught are really doing their students a disservice.

Tags: quicktime, profcast, podcast, e-learning, education, teaching

Just FYI, I have been gone on vacation most of this week and will return in the middle of next week.

here’s a little photo we took in Estes Park (my brother is on the top-right):

i discovered a new resource that looks very promising for folks who want to have online learning resources. the site is called OpenAcademic and is all about helping educators to use various resources (e.g., Drupal, Moodle, Elgg, and MediaWiki). their first order of business is creating an integration across these various tools so that a student would only have to login one time and be able to use all tools an instructor chooses from the above list. that’s a big deal, for what it’s worth. well, i discovered the site and promptly posed a question about using Drupal AND Moodle at the same time. i received a quick response and left a comment, which is similar to the rest of my post here:

i am *really* struggling with what to use for 2 online courses (two sections of the same undergraduate education course) i am teaching this fall . . . and this fall starts in about 3 1/2 weeks.

i got very excited when i learned that someone was using the Google summer of coding to make a module for Drupal that would be a grade book and assignment manager. that inspired me to install Drupal on my server because it seemed like the missing link. i spent about a week or 2 learning some of the intricacies of Drupal and also installing various modules and doing customization, etc. i could go with Drupal, but i really don’t like the forum. so, i am going to have my students use a phpBB forum i’ve installed and i’ve previously used this forum and know the ins-and-outs and features. that’s going to be two logins — plus, since the grade book / assignment manager is not done for Drupal as yet, my students will also have a login for our university provided Blackboard, which i’ll use for grades only (and maybe the assignment manager in BB since it’s decent). i’ll recommend that my students use the same login across all tools, but it’s still going to be many logins . . . and, i’ll have them create blogs as well (i’ll be exploring Elgg later on).

on the other hand, this week i installed Moodle and have been fiddling with it as well. i don’t like the forum included with Moodle either. so, i’ll still link to my phpBB forum, but i could use Moodle’s grade book and that would eliminate Blackboard — i like the idea of only using tools that are free as i work with preservice educators who will be on limited budgets in their own classrooms some day. but, i don’t want to go with Moodle over Drupal just for one feature. there’s just something i haven’t quite put my finger on with regard to Drupal, but i like it much more than Moodle (perhaps the number of modules and the speed that new modules appear???). then again, if i can decide that Moodle is a better tool for my students this semester then i can’t let my bias get in the way of a better learning experience.

time is running out. i am going to continue preparing to use Drupal and Moodle and probably not decide until the final week. hmmm. hmmm. 2 blog posts in 2 days — must mean i am getting back into academia mode. ;~)

Tags: OpenOffice, Drupal, Moodle, Elgg, learning, Blackboard, phpBB, elearn

our college of education was successful in our recent bid for accreditation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). this accreditation process occurs every 6 years, so we are now safe until 2012 or so. that being said, one of the items we were told to focus on in the future is the concept of student dispositions. NCATE provides their own definition for dispositions as, “the values, commitments, and professional ethics that influence behaviors towards students, families, colleagues, and communities and affect student learning, motivation, and development as well as the educator’s own professional growth” (NCATE 2000 Standards: March 31, 2000, p. 31).

so, the question for a preservice education program is how you assess and improve student dispositions. and, are some students more predisposed to becoming teachers? this is an issue that our college of education will be tackling in the future. on a more personal level,  i am curios to explore ways that individual instructors can assess and change student dispositions. further, i want to explore how technology can be used to facilitate this process. i have to admit, i haven’t made dispositions a very prominent part of my teaching previously . . . maybe a bit indirectly, but certainly not overtly. i think it’s important when teaching preservice educators that we not only teach, but get our students thinking about our teaching.

delving more into this issue of dispositions . . . i want to provide my students with knowledge and skills that they can take with them and hopefully use in the future when they have their own classroom. of course, this is probably a common goal for most teachers. but, we all know that there is a huge difference between having this knowledge  and then actually using it. i can have assessments in my class that force students to demonstrate their understanding of a concept or skill, etc., but can i really know that the student is changing his/her disposition towards the future and not just quickly fulfilling my requirement? i am stuck at this point.

i recently saw some research by Katz (1991 or 92) that explained how kids who receive early formal reading instruction and are required to do drill and practice to help become successful readers actually end up not being as disposed to be readers. in other words, this research indicated that trying to change a learners dispositions can actually be counterintuitive. you want to teach kids the skills they need to read, but there is a fine line between using those skills to actually read early and between having that instruction undermine the process. this is quickly becoming a heady-type discussion and i can lose track of where i am going with it quite easily. i’ll focus the rest of this entry on a specific example and how i see technology being used.

i want to help bridge the gap between research and practice. i haven’t searched the literature, but i am sure folks have various strategies with most not being very successful given the status quo, which is a large gap still existing. anyway, i want my students to learn to investigate hypotheses and search through literature. i want my students use summative and formative evaluation in their own teaching. how does this happen you ask? i think i need to demonstrate that i am doing this when i teach — i want to be a role model. everyone has heard the old saying that people tend to teach the way they were taught. if true, then i need to be much more overt in how i am teaching; i need to continue to teach well, but i have to be more in tune with how i am teaching and share that. when i make an online session, i need to start demonstrating how i developed that lesson and each component in it. i can use technology to provide screen shots of various stages in the development of the content. maybe instead of a screen shot i just briefly provide a snippet in a sidebar that helps to explain why i picked this external article. or, i can use technology to help demonstrate how i searched Google to find supplementary resources and how i searched the literature in my field to find research on any given topic to get a better grasp of the subject. perhaps every lesson i teach should have a follow up podcast where i talk about teaching that lesson? if a lesson is not going well, i need to help my students understand why i am making changes midstream (formative evaluation) and how i might teach this lesson differently in the future (using summative evaluation). this is going to take a lot of effort to provide my instruction but to also provide a look into the behind the scenes of my instruction, but i think it will be worth it. i think i owe it to my students (preservice teachers) to provide a model of what i hope they can become. i don’t know that this will change dispositions, but don’t i owe it to my students to make this effort? if you teach preservice educators, how are you assessing student dispositions and what do you do to make positive changes?

Tags: student dispositions, NCATE, accreditation, teaching, learning