Kamehameha Schools Distance Learning (KSDL) Owau

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...