I have been using VoiceThread for a couple years now, but I just learned that there is a free app download for smart devices that allows teachers and students to interact in threaded video, audio, and text discussions through their smart devices. Absolutely amazing. I absolutely recommend it. What fun! Click here to go to the VoiceThread Information Page.
In one of the faculty development courses I facilitate, I had a few questions about Faculty Front Door and how I embed websites into Blackboard posts. I designed the videos below to share some of these tricks with my colleagues at Valencia College. However, please note that anyone could use these videos to do the same tricks in blogs, WebCT or other CMS courses, SoftChalk, really anywhere you can copy and paste “Source Code”.
This first video demonstrates how to edit your Valencia Faculty Front Door
This next video demonstrates how to embed webpages into Blackboard pages and posts. But first let me give you the code I talk about in the video. Again, you don’t have to understand this code, you just have to type it in the code view and paste in your link and hit submit. Blackboard will take care of the rest. Good luck! Remember if it is not working, you may not have typed in the code correctly.
What an honor to be named Professor of the Year by Carnegie. Below are the video and article Valencia ran on me, I am so pleased with the work Valencia’s marketing team did.
A Valencia College professor is being recognized today by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as the 2011 Florida Professor of the Year.
James May teaches English to speakers of other languages, but he has developed his own style – using technology to get beyond language barriers and help students learn.
“I guess I’ve always liked technology,” May said, “but I have never really believed in using technology for technology’s sake. Ask a language teacher and you will hear, ‘Truly acquiring a language requires interaction.’ As social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video-sharing sites and smart technology proliferated, so too did my ability to interact with my students. And I have found that, in addition to being more interested, my students read and write better as a result.”
The U.S. Professors of the Year program, administered by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), salutes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country – those who excel as teachers and influence the lives of their students.
A total of 27 state winners and four national winners will be honored at a reception today at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
“We’re thrilled that Dr. May was named Florida Professor of the Year,” said Ruth Prather, president of Valencia’s East Campus, where Professor May teaches. “His students do extraordinarily well. He’s a credit to Valencia and to his fellow faculty.”
May has had an extraordinary year. He won the Excellence in Technology award by the Association of Florida Colleges, taking first place. And last November, May was honored by the Florida Association of Community Colleges as their 2010 Professor of the Year.
Valencia is one of the nation’s largest and most celebrated two-year colleges. In September, the school was named one of 10 finalists for the million-dollar Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, which rewards the best and most innovative community college in the nation. Valencia is also ranked first in the nation among all community colleges in the number of associate degrees awarded, second in the number of associate degrees awarded to Hispanics and third in the number awarded to African-Americans.
Still Wondering what I mean by Digital, On-Demand Learning? Watch the YouTube video below. This is the video I submitted for the AFC competition.
Warning: the video is interactive. At one point you will be asked to click on the screen. By doing so, you will be moved to another part of the video. From there, you will be asked to interact again and be brought back to the place where you left off. If you don’t interact, it is OK the video will just play through. Enjoy!
If you would like the transcript, Click here
Here is the Prezi I used to help explain the need for on-demand content. For those of you not familiar with Prezi, you can use Prezi to freely & easily design amazing presentations.
So, what is it? The quick answer is that QR (or Quick Response) code is a two-dimensional code that was developed by Denso-Wave (a subsidiary of Toyota) back in 1994. The code was originally developed to track auto parts in vehicle manufacturing. Today, QR codes are used for a variety of things. You can use QR codes to display text, share website links, share vCards (i.e. virtual business cards), open programs to send emails or text messages, and much more. Click here to learn more. Or try it out. Make your own QR Codes using a free QR Code Generator The Animoto video below gives some examples of how QR code can be used around campus. If you would like to learn more about Animoto, click here.
Interactive YouTube allows us as teachers and trainers to interconnect the video content we are developing. Interactive videos allow students to click from video to video in search of answers. If students lack background knowledge, links can be embedded within videos to link students to other learning videos that can help to facilitate that background knowledge. This video gives a basic introduction to annotations in YouTube and gives viewers a basic hands on sample with different Mosquito Ringtones as part of the video (for those of you who have never heard of mosquito ringtones, these are ring tones that some age groups are often unable to hear.) Have fun!
If you would like to see the benefits of adding a 2 dollar green screening effect, watch the video below.
If you would like to see some other great interactive YouTube videos that really showcase what interactive YouTube has to offer, check out these three. They are my favorites.