Archive for the ‘Tools’ Category
Webinars at the SOG: The Numbers
Posted by: Joel Galbraith in Did you Know?, Distance Learning, Tools on October 2nd, 2009
Webinars are a major new way we’ve been frugal while providing real value to our clients where and when they need it. SOG’s use of the webinars as a means of reaching out to clients has increased in recent months.
Here are some unofficial numbers as of October 1, 2009:
- 24 webinars conducted
- 5 webinars still scheduled for this fall
- At least 2,599* webinar attendees
- At least 1,105** webinar archive viewings
These figures include the EFC’s webinar use. These days EFC runs about one webinar a month. You can view their webinar schedule here.
Our webinars have overwhelmingly gone off well, but things don’t always go smoothly. Being (mentally and logistically) prepared for technical problems (lost connections, frozen slides, audio difficulties) is important, and TLS can offer tips to help ensure a smoother recovery. We are fortunate in that clients are very forgiving and consistently rate our webinars very highly
You can view some examples below. Recognize the faces or voices? Want to know more? Contact Joel Galbraith AND go talk to your pioneering, trail-blazing, webinaring colleagues about their experience.
Notes:
*The real count is actually much higher, but numbers are difficult to pin down from server data alone since multiple registered clients often attend together around a single computer…but log in as a single user.
**Statistics for webinar archive views are also challenging to interpret, but we clearly distinguish an *additional* 1,105 archive viewings (688 in the Karl Smith Economy Webinar alone)
These numbers do *NOT* include Online Learning Modules (i.e. Indigent Defense Lectures, LME board training, Involuntary Commitment, Judicial College modules)
Online Learning Communities: Time To Get Wet?
Posted by: Joel Galbraith in Govt. 2.0, Local Government, Tools on June 12th, 2009
Within a couple months of my hiring and having gained a better appreciation of what the SOG is all about, it became clear to me that something was missing–online Communities of Practice (CoP). We were the great conveners–regularly bringing communities of practice together face-to-face to learn from us and from one another, and then they all went home…until we did it again. I know this doesn’t capture the ongoing phone and email support we provide our clients, nor the collective toe we’ve stuck in the water, or knee-depth wading we’ve done with our listservs. Some have even waded in quite deep with their wikis and blogs, but in my view, we’ve not yet realized the potential synergies of bridging the experience and expertise of our clients with that of our own in-house experts.
Last year we submitted a grant proposal (unsuccessful) to lay the technical foundation for a NC Land Use Planners Community of Practice–an open forum for government practitioners to learn from each other as well as providing a common platform to engage with School of Government faculty and resources. More than a portal where people come to find resources, a CoP is place where all can contribute resources, and at many different levels. More than a blog, with a single or few authors, a CoP can be “authored” by all subscribers. More than a wiki, A CoP is equally focused on the community and contributers as it is the content they contribute. I think this quote captures much of my thinking on CoP:
“People are the best conduits of information. Studies have shown that workers spend a third of their time looking for information and are five times more likely to turn to a coworker rather than an explicit source of information (book, manual, or database). Time is saved by conferring with members of a CoP. People have tacit knowledge which is not found in a book [or blog, webpage or wiki]. ” (Dalkir 2005).
Such a community space would allow our client groups to: Read the rest of this entry »
Understanding SOG Webinars
Posted by: Joel Galbraith in Best Practice, Distance Learning, Tools, Try it! on May 5th, 2009
We’ve written a couple posts now on webinars at SOG (here and here), but today’s event wins the prize. For those unable to attend today’s webinar, you missed out! I hope you will take the time to watch the archive. It is well-worth a lunch time viewing…but not as good as the live event!
The goals of the webinar were to:
- give all attendees a first-hand look at what SOG webinars look–and act–like
- demonstrate a range of activities available in an SOG webinar (hint: you can do more than PowerPoint)
- Help you see ways a webinar might be useful to your courses, conferences and programs.
While viewing the archive, you’ll hear from numerous SOG colleagues: Donna Warner, Jen Lobenhofer, Joel Galbraith, Nancy Kiplinger, Shadi Eskaf, Cindy Lee. You’ll also hear and read responses to a number of questions from your peers.
The webinar covers: using PowerPoints, playing videos, using multiple presenters, using remote presenters, conducting audience polls (ala TurningPoint and clickers), online group discussions, question moderating, shared web browsing, annotation, session breaks, and much more 
Webinar archive link: http://breeze.unc.edu/p25529382/
Thank you to all those that helped with *and* participated in the event. What did YOU think of it? Did you gain any new insights? What challenges/benefits do you foresee? Please share your comments with us below!
-TLS team
Faculty Spotlight: IDE Online Presentations
Posted by: Greg Whisenhunt in Distance Learning, Faculty Spotlight, How To, Instructional Design, Just for Fun, Presentations, Tools on April 27th, 2009
Indigent Defense Education
- Faculty: John Rubin, Whitney Fairbanks, and Alyson Grine
- Program Manager: Meredith Murray
- Events: Indigent Defense Education
- Type: Narrated PowerPoint: recorded during live presentation
- Tools: PowerPoint, Adobe Presenter, lavalier microphone
- Date: Fall 2008-ongoing
- Clients: Indigent Defense
- Link (view sample):Involuntary Commitment Process
Objective:
Make Indigent Defense training available for clients unable to attend live sessions.
Blogs = Websites
Posted by: Joel Galbraith in Did you Know?, Presentations, Tools, Try it!, Uncategorized on March 23rd, 2009
view my presentation and a short video on blogs
Today’s blogs are yesterday’s websites. Saying that, however, does not do them justice. Today’s blogs aren’t even yesterday’s blogs–which essentially started out as online journals that allowed the author to easily post daily text entries. Today’s blogs are media-rich, online publishing platforms–while simultaneously being very easy to create, edit and manage.
A blog can be used to:
- publish your thoughts
- update clients on important issues or legislation
- share online resources (articles, websites, media)
- invite discussion about important topics
- solicit conference or training ideas
- extend conference themes beyond event date
- post media (pictures, audio, presentations, documents,video, news feeds)
- foster transparency in local government
- encourage citizen participation
- change the course of elections
- launch a thousand ships
- …and so much more
There are a host of blogs to view out there, but there’s no substitute for simply starting your own–either for personal purposes (www.blogger.com , www.wordpress.com), or for SOG purposes. If you’d like to learn/explore how blogs might help you have greater impact, contact your nearest, friendly neighborhood TLS team member.
Check out Jeff Welty’s blog at : http://sogweb.sog.unc.edu/blogs/ncclaw/
Writing good TurningPoint questions
Posted by: Joel Galbraith in Best Practice, Tools, Uncategorized on March 2nd, 2009
John Stephens sent me a link today to a Wired Campus post on using clickers in the classroom (”clickers”=the generic name for TurningPoint type tools) . There were a couple good points (adapted below), but the main thing it made me think of is that we really ought to develop an SOG list of good clicker questions.
We actually started a list of sorts in a recent TurningPoint brownbag session, so add your clicker (TurningPoint) use questions and ideas to that post or simply add your comment below. Three edited examples from the Wired Campus article follow:
- Ask a question, have all the students think about it and respond to it individually, and then take a look at the results. If there’s a lot of consensus around the question, then it may be time to move on to the next thing. If there’s disagreement, then this is a question that the students can probably talk about together in small groups.
- Clickers can provide the instructor with some useful information about who their students are and where they’re coming from. That can allow the instructor to know, “Oh, I’m probably going to have to play the devil’s advocate on this issue because I don’t have many students that feel this way.”
- You can ask some high-level critical-thinking questions where students are asked to look at a particular quality of a peer’s or group’s answer to a sample case or problem and say, on a scale from 1-5, how good was this? And then you have a discussion about what was good or flawed about the response. Don’t make the questions too easy!
How have you used TurningPoint clickers? Share your ideas here…or there.
-Joel G.
There’s nothing like experience…coupled with feedback, reflection and do-overs.
Posted by: Joel Galbraith in Best Practice, How To, Presentations, Tools, Uncategorized on February 12th, 2009
I made a presentation today to the SOGroovy photo club on framing and composing principles in photography. In the process–and courtesy of my fellow SOGers–I (re)learned a couple key teaching lessons:
- Relate the material to your audience’s experiences. Angela W. was bold enough to speak out and mentioned how similar some of these design principles were to the page layout work she’s done. I’m glad she made the connection, because I missed that important teaching opportunity, to relate the material to my audience–or even to ask them to reflect and share on how it related to them.
- When showing examples, also share appropriate “non-examples” (aka poor examples) to allow your audience to see the contrast and value of following your proposed procedure. On this note, I received feedback (always nice, thanks Cindy L.) that some poor examples would have been helpful in understanding the design principles I was trying to teach.
- Take a calculated risk, and learn/try something new. We often expect our students to learn new material and procedures, but may be unwilling ourselves to learn or try something new (i.e. change our slides, class format, learning activities, lecture style, handouts etc.). Knowing I would have a very gracious and forgiving audience, I tried a unique, new presentation tool* (NOT PowerPoint). It took some getting used to, but I’m getting the hang of Prezi and am impressed. I practiced a good deal, and felt I was ready to break from my traditional presentation routine–based on feedback, the risk paid off.
Click image to launch presentation
I’m glad we’re a learning organization at the SOG–willing to speak up and share ways we can all improve. I believe all present were instructed and edified by the experience. If you’re interested in seeing the presentation (or simply the tool), view my online Prezi presentation here: Framing and Composition 101
*If you’re up to try a new approach, and have a creative glint in your eye, ask your TLS representative if Prezi is right for you.
-Joel G.
Distance Learning Preferences Poll: To listen or Read?
Posted by: Joel Galbraith in Best Practice, Distance Learning, How To, SOG, Tools on February 9th, 2009
There’s often a difference between what we prefer, and what we really do. This issue is seen in distance learning preference as well. Most people generally prefer face-to-face instruction, but we’re all capable of learning in different ways, and do so on a regular basis (informally) while listening to the radio, reading an article etc. We wouldn’t want all our learning to be classroom delivered.
In the distance learning world, instruction and knowledge is technologically mediated (delivered), and can generally take the form of temporal or time-based media (audio, video, presentations, lectures), or non-temporal media (text, images, slides only). When we’re in a hurry, or are only marginally interested, we often prefer text which is easily skimmed. There are times when we want to hear a good lecture, or casually listen while doing other things…and selectively pay attention when we get to the good (interesting) parts. Each has its merits. One is not “better” for learning than the other…at least not on those grounds)
But I’m curious, Which do you prefer? To read or to listen?, and perhaps more importantly, if your online SOG training were to be presented in this way, which do you think you’re more likely to sit down and actually “do”?! Take the Poll (omit your name if you wish)
TurningPoint: Creating a Question Slide
Posted by: Joel Galbraith in How To, Tools on February 3rd, 2009
In case you missed our TurningPoint Basics brownbag, I assembled some key pieces of info here….
1) There’s more to success with TP than just knowing the tools. Please come see us or your colleagues for ideas on how to use TP to increase class participation, engagement and learning.
2) Cool TurningPoint Tip!
Wanna ask a TP question, but you don’t have a pre-built slide ? There *IS* a way to spontaneously insert a question slide any time during your TurningPoint presentation. Simply hit the F5 key, and a window appears to enter a question and response options on the fly (i.e. should we proceed to a new topic? Yes, No).
Thanks to Tyler M. for challenging me to figure this out!
3) Print out this guide with 10 steps for TurningPoint presentation success.
4) Take a look at this short tutorial (1:26 min) on adding question slides to your powerpoint. Find other great…
