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Wiggio: Online Group Collaborative Learning Tool Coming to Desire2Learn
In March, Desire2Learn acquired the company, Wiggio (http://wiggio.com/). Wiggio creates a product to help students self-organize campus groups. Desire2Learn is working on integrating Wiggio into their Learning Suite, and are aiming to make Wiggio available to all clients in the Fall (although a specific date has not yet been given). So what exactly is Wiggio…
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World Conference on Educational Media and Technology 2013
I attended the World Conference on Educational Media and Technology (EdMedia) organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). The conference was held in Victoria from June 24-27 at the Victoria Conference Centre. This is a truly global conference and we were lucky to have it hosted just down the road,…
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Achieving Better Balance: Learning First, Technology Second
There is a better balance yet to be achieved – between technology and learning in higher education (well K-16 education for that matter). I don’t believe we are there yet. There is a lot of “technology talk” these days….. technology training, technology tweets, technology blog posts, technology spending, technology conference keynotes, technology hype, technology expenses,…
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Design Alchemy: Transforming the Way We Think about Teaching and Learning – in Online Courses
Review of Talk: EdMedia (Victoria, BC, June 2013) Keynote: Design Alchemy: Transforming the Way We Think about Teaching and Learning Presenter: Dr. Rod Sims (Senior Lecturer, Online Learning), University of South Queensland YouTube Capture of Keynote: One of my staff attended the EdMedia Conference and was telling me about this keynote talk. Wow…what a great…
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Technology-Mediated Student Feedback: Obtaining Formative Assessment
I developed a little one hour session on how to use 5 technology tools to get formative assessment – and used all 5 of them as a demonstration in a lab training environment. The trick was to not prepare ahead of time (oh horrors, I know but just wing it as it is part of…
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Teaching Faculty Scholars Program: 2013-2014
NEW!! – Teaching Faculty Scholars Program: Applications Extended Until August 19th! Invitation For: Full-time regular teaching faculty members who are new, emerging, or who could benefit from a one-year cohort-based learning opportunity covering the essentials of university and scholarly teaching The Teaching Faculty Scholars Program (TFSP) is a one year program committed to supporting teaching…
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2013 Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) Annual Conference Summary
Three staff from the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning (CIEL) attended the STLHE (Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education) 33rd annual teaching and learning conference in Sydney, Nova Scotia from June 20-22, 2013. Kathleen Bortolin – Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Specialist, Cayla Neil – Teaching and Learning Support Assistant and Liesel…
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Signature Pedagogies: Three Program Level Projects to Improve Learning
At Vancouver Island University, the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning is working on three projects related to signature pedagogies, professional learning and knowledge networks. VIU is engaged in a teaching and learning institutional-wide project for enhancing teaching of our faculty and engaging them in current best practices around signature pedagogies and discipline-specific teaching…
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Course (Re)Design Institute: Redesigning with Blended Approach
During May 2013, nine Vancouver Island University teaching faculty took part in our first offering of a Course (Re)Design Institute. VIU had never offered such an institute and we went on the hunt for best practices and a model to offer it in a way to include more learning prior to F2F sessions and extend…
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Faculty Development Spring Institute: First Time a Success
Vancouver Island University (VIU) hosted the first annual Faculty Development Spring Institute (FDSI) this May 21-24, 2013. We had 29 participants from the island, mainland BC, Yukon and Ontario! We were aiming for 30 and we are quite pleased with the interest and the amazing group of people who came out. A collaborative effort between…
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D2L 10.2 Upgrade
The Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning is very excited about the June 27, 2013 D2L upgrade to the latest version 10.2! Version 10.2 offers a more streamlined navigation for two of the system’s most used tools – Content and Discussions – as well as other improvements. Please be assured this is not a…
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Pros and Cons of Technology Embedded within Teaching and Learning Centres – and Not in IT
At a recent Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Conference (STLHE), I was part of a round table discussion about the pros and cons of including educational technology departments (serving learning management systems, blogging, video streaming, mobile devices, online course instructional design) within higher education teaching and learning centres. In Canadian colleges and…