cynthiasite
read. think. write. speak. be.
User loginupdates & infoSpring 2010
> While this site formerly hosted my online composition course, I have migrated all of my materials to Desire2Learn. This site has been restructured to focus on my academic blog as well as on materials & resources for distance education faculty, both here at Suffolk and across the state. |
blogsFree ePortfolioThose of us looking for a smart ePortfolio service to share with students might check out Epsilen ePortfolios. The basic version is free for all registered students and faculty of colleges & universities in the U.S., can be set up in minutes, and can be used for years to come. I've played around a bit with setting up a quick ePortfolio, and it's definitely quick and easy. I don't know an awful lot about the company itself, so you might want to look into this some more before recommending it for your students. Overall, though, it seems one of the stronger options out there for free ePortfolio systems. DOC Cop "does not protect intellectual property by taking intellectual property"
For those of us who have reservations about the use of the industry-leader plagiarism software program Turnitin.com, there's a new plagiarism detection service called DOC Cop. This site differs significantly from Turnitin.com because it "does not protect intellectual property by taking intellectual property." This refers to a long-standing criticism of Turnitin.com's policy of keeping a copy of all papers submitted to its database. 'Fair use' confusion threatens media literacyHere's an interesting piece from eSchoolNews online (October 9, 2007) about fair use of digital materials. While it focuses on teachers of media literacy, the comments are appropriate for a broader range of educators, particularly those of us who teach online. 'Fair use' confusion threatens media literacy CCDEC Members: Coming to June 2nd ED39 Meeting?CCDEC members: I'm wondering if you're planning to attend the June 1-2, 2007, ED39 meeting. As you may know from our meeting in D.C., we're going to be at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse. I'm hoping we DE activists can use this meeting to share information and ideas about the status of distance ed in each of our locals and then plot some mischief for the pre-conference workshop on DE that we're planning for the November conference at the Otesaga in Cooperstown. I've proposed to Maureen Rizzi and Bernie Mulligan that we do something like a panel discussion, with individual CCDEC members taking the lead on some particular aspect or issue of DE that you have expertise or a special interest in. Migrating SLN to BlackboardAn update on the SLN vs. Blackboard situation: While the college has been given permission to negotiate with Blackboard, there is still no decision regarding if or when a contract might be settled. From the last Distance Ed Committee meeting, my understanding is that the college is currently doing a cost analysis of SLN/ANGEL as well as Blackboard. And so we're still not sure of the college's decision. Of course, I'll let you know as soon as we know and/or you'll hear it via an official college announcement. Stay tune This Site on That SiteCheck it out! This website is featured on the AFT OnCampus website: http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/on_campus/mayjune07/tech.htm. I recently wrote an article for the American Federation of Teachers' newsletter about how higher ed unionists might harness the powers of Web 2.0, and I used this website as an example of how to do so. Cynthia's Back to BlackboardWell, I heard the news on Friday that I will be teaching my EG11 class in Blackboard starting this summer and continuing on to the fall. While I used Blackboard for years at Mohawk Valley Community College (for fully online and hybrid courses), I have mixed feelings about migrating my class away from this website, since I've grown to love using Drupal. I also like that my students can see the kinds of activities I participate in as a professional, and I like that they have access to the distance ed conversations I host. Cool Tools to Try in Your DE ClassHi, all. The more I chat with DE colleagues, the more I realize how many incredible educational tools and technologies are out there. I've started a page in the Distance Ed section of this website called Cool Tools. The websites listed are in no particular order, and while I started to organize them loosely by area or discipline, I quickly stopped because it occurs to me that while it might seem that a site such as WikiSky is most appropriate for an Astronomy course, a writing prof might find it useful as a writing prompt. My Keynote for UCC's Teaching & Technology ConferenceI've been invited to give the keynote at Union County College's Teaching & Technology Conference on Saturday, March 24, 2007. For those who might be interested, here's a link to my presentation titled The Web is We: Can Web 2.0 Revolutionize Higher Education? All of the links to websites I use in the presentation on embedded within the individual slides. To learn more about Web 2.0 for educators, try these sites: Great CMS Debate: Benefits of Blackboard vs. SLNI noticed that Yingfan posted a note on her blog about the benefits of staying with SLN (you must be logged in to read all blog postings), and I'd like to respond to that here. Yingfan expresses a legitimate concern about losing the statewide marketing power of SLN if we become a Blackboard campus. This is a valid concern; I know that at Mohawk Valley CC (my previous place of employ), we had fewer non-MVCC students in our online Blackboard classes than other upstate colleges which used SLN. At MVCC, we saw it as the trade off for having a more robust CMS. 
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