Kamehameha Schools Distance Learning (KSDL) Owau

This was the first session in the e-Learning Guilds Online Forum on E-Learning and Graphic Design Best Practices. This happened way back in September but I'm just getting a chance to start the 2-day archive. We know graphics make a huge difference when we design our online learning materials. This session made me realize how important it is to consider what graphics we use and how we use them. It's a simple fact that the human mind can remember more visual information so we should always accompany text with a visual wherever possible. Who: Connie Malamed Here are the guidelines she shared to design for the human mind: 1. Organize for preattentive processing: use size, color or orientation to make something stand out. A person looking at the graphic will immediately process things that have emphasis. 2. Show connections and relationships through proximity and connection lines. 3. Use "space" to enhance meaning 4. Use more visuals and fewer words. People are more intere...

Aloha all, Here are the next 4 habits (drum-roll). I know you've all been waiting anxiously for these :) Habit 4: Think Win-Win - Seek agreements and relationships that are mutually beneficial. Meet DR GRAC - here's an acronym that can help create Win-Win performance agreements. Some organizations use this instead of performance reviews or as hiring contracts. Could be a good project planning/management tool - specific without being too complex. Each party involved needs to agree on all 5 elements. Identify desired results - list a few key, clear, specific goals. List measures that will let you know whether or not you have achieved each goal. Assign a deadline and weight to each goal. Define the guidelines - what are the standards and conditions that must be met? Define the resources - what resources are required to complete this agreement (people, budget, tools) Define accountability - how you will be account to each other for progress Define consequences - Always thin...

"Managing yourself, leading others, unleashing potential" was the sub-title for a two-day workshop I attended two weeks ago; kind of intimidating, but it ended up being very informative and engaging. The workshop was based on Stephen Covey's "7 Habits for Highly Effective People," but it was tailored to managers. I really felt that the 7 habits for managers were definitely applicable to anyone who's ever had to manage anything even a project, a family, the household, yourself :) The habits aren't novel or new, but are based on principles and are laid out in a way that's easy to follow and understand. I had heard about the 7 habits a while back and even picked up the book a few times, but I never really knew what it entailed. I would recommend it if you get a chance to attend a workshop or even read one of Covey's books. I'm trying to see if I can get access to some of the video clips showed during my workshop to illustrate some of the princip...

With the holidays approaching and our newsletter being prepped for distribution, I thought this would be a good webinar to get some "holiday" marketing ideas. We're right on track with our Holiday Cookbook for our newsletter. All the strategies suggested focused on building relationships and making us seem "real" and relatable to our customers. They also suggest that that it's a good time to make our homepage festive and let our customers know how much we appreciate them. We could include a link to the list of Hawaiian Christmas Words with a reminder to register for the next Hawaiian language course coming up in January or to a "Mele Kalikimaka" card template for keiki to color and send to grandma or even a MP3 of a Hawaiian christmas carol with a note that the AM culture courses all include keiki activities and mele. Another tip I learned was to make the subject line in our newsletter include words that convey action or a sense of urgency with our...

This post also came from the webinar I discussed in my last post. In polling veteran online teachers and trainers, building community consistently comes up as one of the most significant factors leading to a successful learning experience for students. One participant asked the presenter how she accomplished that and she said that she uses the discussion board to facilitate discussions, collaboration and relationship-building. She went on to say that the one thing that can kill a discussion board forum is a bad question and that adult learners often need questions crafted differently from students.This is what she suggests for creating an engaging question for adult learners. Questions need to be crafted correctly and ask something that demands engagement, application of an idea and be related to something they experienced. Adult learners view everything through a "lens of experience." They make judgements and connections based on their past experiences. If you frame a DB qu...

Here is some info. on one of the NDLW webinars sponsored by USDLA. The webinar featured Pearson's online professional development program to prepare educators to teach online. At Bb World, I had gotten information on their professional development courses and they sent me information about their course development process, but I haven't had a chance to follow-up with them so I was glad to see that they were doing this webinar. Research indicates, and our A`o Kumu Program validates, that teachers want more online prof. development opportunities and more of them are wanting to learn how to teach either hybrid or online courses. The presenters reiterated the fact that as a 21st century educator, to not learn how to teach online is detrimental to both your practice and to the impact you can make on the students you teach. It's no longer an option or a choice or something that "those" teachers do. The presenters also stressed the fact that online teaching, however is n...

The KS workshop titled "Clear Expectations & Accountability" covered a broad overview of establishing clear expectations, accountability, the importance of regular reviews and overall what we can do to lead others to success. The workshop discussed such topics as: The absolute best way to establish clear expectations is to answer: What's important? What does good look like? The Action Planning Formula Who is... (responsible party) Doing what.. (assigned task) When...(due date) Why Regular Reviews? Work that is not inspected gets neglected How to Conduct Regular Reviews Give me an update... Next time... If necessary revise the expectation Debrief What worked? What could we do different next time? The topics covered are certainly useful and can help lead a project to success. Here are some of the slides that were used.

For the past three days I have been in the Blackboard Training. Most of it we know, but here were tools that were shared we normally don't use such as the dashboard in the course. The dashboard can provide a one-shot view as to what assignments are due, test or quizzes, or even if there was a new announcement. However, if we decide to use this with our 'Ike Hawai'i students, it is not a one-size fits all function. Let's just say it only does, what it only does and not necessarily gives all the information. Most of the things they went over were things that we are doing right now or things we have learned (thanks to Clinton's transition plan for us moving to Bb 9.1 and the team doing a great job at in-house training). As a best practice strategy, here is my reflection on what I have gained from the past three days: Thank goodness we have excellent Instructional Designers who keep us organized when it comes to content structure. Seeing how things are transitionin...

I came across ON24 while attending the Virtual Tech Forum . As soon as I entered the online event I noticed the clean interface and design it provided to enhance the user's experience. It reminded me of a static Second Life, it's only an image of a virtual world. This may be a benefit in most cases as it reduces the learning curve, but still provides the feeling of a virtual world to it's users. Of course, the first thing I thought was of our "virtual house" and the potential this type of product can provide. A simple virtual world that is easy for users to learn and access, ON24 looks interesting. For more information, go to ON24's website: http://www.on24.com/ Here are some screen shots from the Virtual Tech Forum showing the ON24 Virtual Event interface: (Imagine a Hawaiian version)

When developing onli ne content it may be useful to integrate javascript to add functionality and interactivity to your web site. When developing the A'o Makua Ka Na'i Aupuni course I used javascript to solve many issues. After researching many javascript sites, I came across the W3schools JavaScript website that provided a good background on the topic as well as examples. So, if any of you find yourself needing a javascript reference, you can go check that site out. Also, on the same site they also cover other topics such as CSS, HTML and SQL too.

First Presenter was from Ambient Insight . United States is number one for mobile device purchases. Carriers are getting into e-learning, devices coming pre-loaded with activities. Health care industry - lots of apps for health education Location-based games - started with museums, art galleries and tourist attractions. Now government are developing apps. Examples shared: 1. Cyclopedia - Cyclopedia uses the iPhone camera, compass and GPS together to create an augmented reality of the world by overlaying Wikipedia information over the viewfinder. 2. Wikitude - Augmented reality world browser. Second Presenter was from Emantras - E-Learning Training Solutions. He (Lois Strikoff) shared the idea of "Waiting for Superman" which is a book and also a movie, this is the first I've heard about this: http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/synopsis He also shared the companies mobile learning app, mobl21 The most valuable portion for me was the location-based applications since we...

As we think of new ways to deliver content through mobile learning we're also thinking of ways to increase engagement with our learners. Yes, mobile learning makes learning easier because it can take place virtually anywhere. Here's an article on how a New Jersey scho ol is using the iPad for teaching. This article utilizes the iPad in classrooms to enhance lessons and increase how the lessons are taught through robust applications. The use of the iPads in schools are different from laptops in that there are no flip screens to block the teacher's view. The battery lasts all day as well. Through the use of mobile learning devices, they've seen test scores improved by 30%. I think everyone agrees that utilizing this type of mobile learning has it's advantages, but how would we implement this in KSDL? Here's a few questions to ponder: If we were given the a few iPads to use, how can you see us "rolling" it out? Why do you think it's important fo...

"Creativity: a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual." - Arthur Koestler Day 1 Blackboard Community Engagement Training Let's just say this statement says it all for me. Going through the first day of the Blackboard Community Engagement was a little of a refresher for the basic LMS system we have. However, the afternoon was a totally different story. Ideas...Community Engagement will be able to create a one system for all information. Whether this is for Tri-Campus, KSDL, or HR, information will be a one source for internal information that can be updated and disseminated. Yes we have sharepoint, but this is something that we can utilize for delivering information. Clinton's idea for the new design is right on the mark. With the content management and community engagement, both of these will allow for the content to be displayed creating the $1 menu we keep talking about. Also, as I have heard from various i...

Here's our 10/26 team meeting o wau posting. I swapped with Komarey because I wanted to play around with some new mobile tools. Please bring your mobile phones and/or laptops to participate synchronously. http://dorothyhirata.blogspot.com/2010/10/playing-around-with-mobile-real-time.html

Verizon to begin selling IPhone in Jan `11 . Did I get your attention? ;) Ok, here’s my OWAU… I was excited to learn that with the new MS Office 2010 update they also released a “cloud” version of Office. AKA Office Web Apps, the web based version of popular office products such as PPT, Excel, Word, and more was created in part to combat the success of Google Apps. I was hoping that this new release might help our students to better access our content on mobile devices or serve as an option for students, who for whatever reason; don’t have a consistent access to the MS Office suite. I intended to test out Office Web Apps on my iPod Touch. After not being allowed to log in, I did some research on the net and found that at this time, there is a work around so that you can get Office Web Apps to open documents on your iPod however you can’t edit them on your device. Booooo. As for being able to access and edit Office documents from the Web on a computer that doesn’t have Office run...

As we are venturing into the larger ocean of learning, this webinar presented why we need to consider to move into the realm of mobile learning. However, I thought I would do a little research outside to see what the forecast is for mobile learning. Today's mobile strategies look at two things: Engage your entire learning community by providing access. Enhance teaching and learning with mobile devices to increase teacher efficiencies. With Blackboard Mobile Learn, we would be able to push out content and provide users access taking learning with them where ever they go. As we look at how to engage our learners, this would be one step closer to building a community of learners by allowing anytime/anywhere access. As we look at how Blackboard Mobile Learn can expand learning for our community of learners as well as on our tri-campuses, let's take a look at some of the data that has been recently published on mobile learning. According to Ambient Insight , who recently published...

Aloha all, Here is the webinar that we've been talking about in regards to e-mail marketing efforts to develop loyal customers. Click on the image to access a recorded version or a PDF of the slides. As we draft our PMS goals for this FY and look at our Branch marketing efforts, I thought these would be good tactics or components of a pilot strategy that we could take a look at. The suggestions are pratical and would apply to our A`o Makua audience. Many of the tactics also seem relatively easy to create, sustain, track and evaluate. Here's some basic points from the presentation. Why focus on retaining loyal customers? "Loyal customers are more profitable. It costs as much as ten times more to acuire a new customer than to retain an exiting one." Customer loyalty is determined by three factors: 1. Relationship strength 2. Perceived alternatives (i.e., your competition) 3. Critical episodes - their interaction with you, both positive AND negative Here are some examp...

Aloha all, I thought this blog post provided pretty good advice, from our friend Seth Godin, about what to include on our "About" page. For us, it may be combining both our "About" and "Contact Us" pages to make it more streamlined and user-friendly. Looks like something we can work on while we plan for our bigger Web site re-design. Kelly

Google came out with new item called Google Instant . Try it out and see how it saves you time in searches.

Florida Virtual Schools (FLVS) had their virtual open house from August 25-26, which was free . The environment of this virtual open house was like Second Life, but what was interesting was the content shared and how it was shared. Here is a recap of the sessions I attended. New Innovations This was an excellent session and very informative. Gaming is a big asset for FLVS for delivering curriculum. At a recent Games Learning Society Conference, a presentation made by individuals all over creating games specifically for education. Whether handheld or mobile devices, game developers are creating interactive instruction for learners rather than one or just 2-dimensional. Brian Collins and Jeramy Gatza, Curriculum Innovation Specialist for FLVS presented two videos that I found very resourceful that we could share with our instructors and participants. Click here to watch video video platform video management video solutions video player Some of the resources offered were thin...

This Webinar started with going over some of the data we've seen in the SpeakUp surveys. How ubiquitous mobile technology will become in the next 5 years. One interesting graph was that more than 80% of grade 9-12 students have an iPod. After the initial introduction, the Mobile Evangilist (love this title) came on to showcase the iPad application. You could tell that the team that developed this is definitely part of the generation. It functions so differently than the Blackboard LMS. If the student was on an iPad, I could see them never accessing Blackboard through a personal computer once they have that experience. The ability to open multiple tools (blog, announcements) and content on the screen, move it around as you wish, just makes it easier for students to engage in the content. It's very exciting to see where things are headed. Blackboard is committed to looking at Blackboard Mobile Central (engaging commuity) and Blackboard Mobile Learn (enrich teaching and learnin...

I attended a webinar today on Blackboard Mobile Learning. It was interesting and exciting to see how it's become more refined. Students today have access to a variety of electronic mobile devices. Bb Mobile learn has developed apps that are compatible with most popular phones. You can view various demos here: http://www.blackboard.com/Mobile/Mobile-Learn/Device-Demos.aspx One of my favorites is the iPad demonstration. It's a neat way of displaying course and delivery with seamless movement from course to course. Bb also mentioned keeping the student user in mind while trying to develop these apps. I downloaded the Bb app for mobile learning and viewed some of the demos. The screen shot is the "landing page". I see using this with the parents in A`o Makua. They say they don't have time, but the content in the course can be something they access while waiting for things such as in line at the supermarket, Dr.'s appt., kid's games, ect... Maybe this wi...

Yesterday, I attended the Instant Learning Impacts Performance: Creating One-Idea/One-Action Learning Events webinar by Ray Jimenez. He stressed the use of short, micro-lessons in learning saying that the longer it is the less they learn. Each lesson should be short, quick, provide instant learning, have application, and provide results. He also noted that in his research he studied how the brain works stating that the mind indexes information by stories and that there is a need to make use of existing knowledge when creating new learning experiences. In creating activities you should always ask questions because they accelerate connections within the brain. While I would say that this webinar was mostly review and just okay, I did receive some resources that may provide useful in development. 3 minute learning activities http://www.my3mg.com/reusables/?pageNumber=2 It is a pay feature but, they’re doing beta testing which will allow for discounted rates & some free subscript...

I was really excited to listen to this Webinar, so much so that I forgot to do my blog while listening (which I usually do). Since Dorothy sent us the link to Tom Kuhlman's blog I've spent a lot of time perusing it as well as other people's sites ( Garr Reynolds - Presentation Zen , TED Presentations ) and borrowing design books. I think the ideas are great and I'm getting inspired but I have to self-edit before I drive myself crazy with too many ideas :). So this morning's Webinar complimented his blog. The main takeaways for me: Think blank canvas - move away from thinking of PowerPoint in terms of bullets and images, you can be totally creative with a blank canvas Create your own images - breakdown images into simple shapes that can be reconstructed in PowerPoint Seek out inspiration - from other people, blogs, gurus. Tom pulls down the TED presentations and watches one every now and then to see what ideas he can pull There are a lot of communities that discuss t...

Aloha, Here's a follow-up to Cassie's latest post. I shared with some of you that Greg Mortenson was the key note speaker at Bb World this year. I thought I'd share a little more about his talk and what it left me thinking about and reflecting on. Like Cassie said, Greg Mortenson is on a mission very similar to Princess Pauahi . His goal (that's not the right word), his passion is to empower people through education and specifically to empower the oppressed people of Afghanistan. First of all, before the keynote, I had read about who the speaker was and what book he wrote so I was fully expecting him to focus on the use of technology, specifically Blackboard, to spread education throughout the world. I was very pleasantly surprised that his talk focused solely on people and education. He started off by saying that the medium, whether it's a chalkboard or Blackboard or a piece stone, doesn't matter because at the very essence of education is the person you are...

I was fortunate to receive this book and spent some time to read it. After reading the first few chapters I had to encouraged myself to push forward to engross myself in the story. However, I am very glad that I did. Greg Mortenson took an idea of passion and went forward. In his book Three Cups of Tea, he shares the adversity and challenges he encountered such as being kidnapped by the Taliban or receiving tons of hate mail from Americans, but Mortenson still went forward. His philanthropic vision to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past decade is inspirational for what one person can do. Also, his humanitarian spirit has resulted in 55 schools, especially for girls, to attend school in forbidden terrain, which was previously occupied by the Taliban. Although the book focuses on his journey of creating these educational facilities, he has impacted the larger educational community to do more for their communities. Mortenson said, "There is a saying on my mirror i...

When we recently did a training for our A'o Makau instructors and thought of them when I was testing out this tool. However, I will say that Engrade.com has been an excellent resource for classroom teachers. You can manage your class in a real-time environment and students, parents, as well as administrators can all look at what is happening. As a teacher you can create your class website, assignment calendar, online messaging that is secure, attendance and grades. Last but not least - IT'S FREE!

The Design, Topography and Graphics free monthly newsletter is chock full of tips and articles on...design, topography and graphics. It's editor says they keep articles forevah, so they will be there when you need them down the line. This month there was a set of posts and links regarding social media, including SN in 2012 and things you need in your organization's policies to use social media. Not deep, but useful. http://www.graphic-design.com/web-design/resources/social-media-tracks If you're interested, here is the host company's link and a link to sign up for the newsletter. I've found lots of interesting articles on all kinds of things. http://www.graphic-design.com/ Newsletter signup: http://dtgnews.com/mailman/listinfo/dtgnews_dtgnews.com

Aloha all, In one presentation I went to at Bb World, there was mention of new copyright laws that may go in to effect soon that had implications for online learning and accessibility to otherwise copyright protected content. They didn't go into detail, but said to be on the look out for it. I just saw this come through iNACOL and thought the rest of you would be interested. The US Copyright Office reviews copyright laws every three years and just handed down 6 classes, regarding use of technology, that will be exempt from prosecution. Have to admit I don't know much about " jailbreaking " or " dongles ," but I can definitely see how this can set a precedent for future educational accessibility through the use of technology. Here's the link to the article: "Now Legal in the U.S. . . ." Kelly

Student ideas for green roof make school a teaching lab - The Boston Globe I enjoyed reading this article and especially liked the fact that this is a student-driven project that will be integrated with meaningful curriculum.

You may noticed the updated look of our blog, there's a new template feature and it has lots of flexibility to I decided to change it up and give us a fresh new look :). For my 'O Wau, I've been flipping through the June issue of eSchool News. In publications like these, I like to see what new tools are out there and what schools are doing. So I'm getting back to basics and asking you to explore some of these sites: Grockit - like Facebook but for learning. FLVS just did a pilot with their algebra students and will e expanding to incorporate some of the content. I tried my hand at the SAT prep. It's an interesting concept of social gaming and competition while learning. I have an account so e-mail me if you want to use mine. SAS Curriculum Pathways - web-based activities in core subjects for grades 8-12. Lessons take an inquiry-based approach. Watch the tour . BrainPop - animated content organized by subject area with lots of activities. I liked the idea o...

Yesterday (June 9), I attended the convention in Waimānalo. It was a day filled with practitioners and students focused on food sovereignty. This was the last of the three days (I only attended one day) which included workshop and hands-on sessions. The day started off with a plenary discussion on food systems. A familiar face (Keola Chan) was first to speak in the group. He talked about the need to have a relationship with our food, to honor it and make it more of a spiritual experience. The others on the panel went through food the rest of the food system from farmers, chefs, markets and education. This did set the tone for the rest of the day and I was excited to be part of the movement occurring. There were about two hundred people and I was in awe over the diversity, from university to community, and yet there was always a shared common goal. I participated in ‘Ai Pono, Kaulana Mahina and Aquaponics. In the ‘Ai Pono session I heard them talk about health eating but what was ...

Westside Community Schools is using Blackboard in a blended environment. They have over 400 courses online that work in conjunction with face-to-face courses. They are using it in a way that I can see our campus using it and in the same process that I'm thinking for the hybrid course. The two teachers that shared showed how Blackboard becomes a central resource for communicating with students and seen the benefits of providing online resources to content (for students to return to and review if necessary). Part of the Webinar was to showcase 9.1. Each time and see the capabilities it makes me more and more excited. I think for teachers the standards alignment and the lesson plan builder will help them transition their content online. I'm ready to use it with the hybrid course! Archive link: https://blackboard.webex.com/blackboard/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=EC&rID=52356432&rKey=80ae29fce441f227

I decided to read this publication more for the reference to blended learning and the instructional media matrix. What I found was pretty thorough overview about distance learning from a historical standpoint, definitions of different terms and also a look at what myths we've become accustomed to as educators. One of the things that was brought up was learning styles. I've heard this mentioned in other research but this publication states " cognitive science has revealed that learners differ in their abilities with different modalities, but teaching to a learner‘s best modality does not affect his or her educational achievement. What does matter is whether the learner is taught in the best mode for a specific type of content ." Therefore, choosing the appropriate instructional strategy based on what you want them to learn should be paramount. Whether their preferential mode of learning is addressed should not be a factor. Ninety percent of what the brain process...

Web 1.0 was about finding information. Web 2.0 was about giving the everyday user ways to create interactive web experiences - websites, calendars, picture galleries and other collaborative tools. " Rather than a search engine, it [Web 3.0] is an 'answer engine' that interprets actual questions and answers them in accordance with their intended meaning. The Futurist compares its significance to the launch of Netscape in 1994. It's dubbed "the Semantic Web" because it's all about asking questions in ways that will give you useful answers. ( Wolfram Alpha : The Birth of Web 3.0 , The Futurist, May 7, 2010) So, what is an "answer engine"? Steven Wolfram demonstrates how such an engine could calculate, for a particular city in the US, what the weather was on a particular day, compared to the weather in London, England on that same day. You ask the question in plain Enlgish and Wolfman Alpha uses databases, algorithms and other existing ways to cru...

At first when this webinar started it was basically on Elluminate and using blogger. However, as I stayed and multi-tasked listening and doing other things an interesting site was shared. Diigo, is a research and knowledge-sharing community. You can do tagging and annotation of things that you have found. Waht is interesting is the presenter, Sharon Stone, said one of her links she could not find when she searched for it, but the robot saved her link in Diigo and she was able to retrieve the information. Diigo can help students orgamize, critically analyze, categorize, and collaborate with others in their group. Diigo is free, portable, easy to learn to use, highlighting tool and sticky notes are a great tool! To learn more, they have a wiki at http://digitaltools.wmwikis.net . Also, Diigo feeds to Facebook, Twitter, Goolge, and Yahoo! This is kind of like Delicious asking you to download a toolbar, but it allows you to organize your research by tags or list, achive them, and an...