Sometimes I’m just incredulous about educators (here, department chairs) who cannot transition from seat time to proficiency. I’m working to place some AP courses online and though the credit we will give is 1.0 credit, some teachers think one cannot cover an AP course in a semester. Haven’t these people heard of block-scheduling on a “double period?
Archive for February, 2009
23
Feb
09
Moving Away from Seat Time
17
Feb
09
Technology Blues
For integrated video and PowerPoint, we’ve been using e-Presence. Last fall, we moved the device to the Iowa School for the Deaf, just across the river in Council Bluffs: they have a professional studio and more bandwidth than anyone around with the exception of Offutt Air Force Base. Anyway, I made a couple of killer videos for my training class, only to have the videos fail upon publishing.
So after a discussion with the vendor in Toronto and a new patch and an upgrade, I’m back in Iowa tomorrow to “push out” the new videos or rerecord them again. In any case, I like to stay at least a week ahead of my class; at present, I’m about three days ahead.
Strangely enough, the device seemed to function best in my “Wayne’s World” basement with a my decade-old home video camera. Low tech, but functional.
In other news, I joined the Twitterati this weekend, which made me realize that I don’t go to very exciting places!
14
Feb
09
board work
Preoccupied with board work this week. On Sunday, I flew to DC for a meeting of community college trustees. Before the meeting, however, I was off to see “The Chinese National Treasures,” which weren’t far from our hotel. A disappointment: the pandas look more like men in bear suits that real animals. For the conspiracy theorists: Maybe they are men in bear suits!
In Washington, my group from Nebraska did speak with Senators Nelson and Johanns, both of whom are about my size. Go 5′9″ men!
I returned from those meetings early to host my own board from the virtual world. We had a full day of meetings Friday. We discussed many topics, including ways to drive students and parents to our site. To that end, we’ll host an NCAA basketball survey and also a retreat aimed at mothers.
