Personal Learning Tools – Curious David in CARROLL LAND

Why Twitter is Rising in Importance in My Personal Learning Program

It’s my research day. I just helped Leo the Great Pyr onto his Central Bark Doggie Day Care bus

and had a team meeting with Lizzy and Alison, two of my student research assistants. Before I gave them research assignments, I shared with them my Christmas ritual of opening up Jacquie Lawson’s marvelous Advent Calendar App. Thank you, Jacquie, for giving us reasons to smile and be in awe.
While we are working I receive a Facebook communication (and feedback) that Katerina and Tim Miklos, now in England, enjoyed the wedding video that Alison produced with Imovie as one of her research projects with me on Tuesday. I hope in the near future to research and develop with my students global communication tools such as Skype by communicating with Katerina in England, Ben in Hungary, Maren in Madagascar, Andrew in Switzerland, and Hersonia in Mexico. Who else abroad is willing to help us learn together?
I’m monitoring my Twitter feed as I write this blog piece and find 10 ideas, resources, and thought-leaders worth following. The dross is outweighed by the nuggets as I refine my Twitter filters and make better use of Twitter applications. I still am not quite ready to explore Twitter Chats. Just because a technology learning tool HAS capabilities, doesn’t mean that I need them –or that I should change my teaching to accommodate them.
Thank you Teri Johnson and Jane Hart for firmly but gently nudging me into exploring the use of Twitter.
Here are 10 tweets that informed me or guided my personal learning today:

I see that Maria Konnikova has a new book out in January. She writes so well about psychology and pseudo science. I preorder the book and send her a brief note. Thank you, Maria, for your clear thinking, your lucid writing, and your thought-provoking ideas.
Alec Couros recommends a Ted Talk about “Where Good Ideas Come From.” If I can find time, I’ll take a look at that before teaching my research Seminar. Thank you, Alec, for the inspiration.
The indefatigable Richard Byrne alerts me to some free Technology Tools for Teachers.
While I am data mining resources from K-12 I take a quick glance at my Edutopia feed.
A colleague on LinkedIn suggests reposts an article about skills every young professional should have. I see value in sharing this with my advisees. Thank you, Rebecca!
I see a Mac 911 MacWorld piece about how to incorporate special characters into documents. I’ll need this as i try blog pieces in different language. I snag it (oops, gotta be careful. I own that App and I am starting to use my Dictation software as I write blogs).
Richard Kiker’s use of Paper.li motivates me to return to exploring its utility as a curating tool. I assign that protect to Arianna.
I am reminded and convinced that it is important that I incorporate thinking about climate change—and doing something about it into my life.
I take a quick look at a recent EverNote blog post since I continue to struggle with most best to master its features.
I glance at recent posts from LifeHacker—always fun to read and read one about how there just doesn’t seem to be enough time.

YIKES! Tempus fugit (or as Mrs. Bode, my Howland High School Latin teacher often punned, Time fidgets!)
Time to protect myself against Internet Distractions.

Retrospective Thinking: How much tinkering should one do with a course that seems to work well?

I continue to experiment with my “best” course to make it better by finding the right balance of technology-assisted and personally- delivered instruction. I have been pleased at the helpfulness, useful feedback and receptiveness of students as we “experiment.”

I just made a Screenflow screencast of what I taught in lab this week (using SPSS to create a scatterplot, calculate Pearson’s r, and do simple linear regression).

This time I published it on YouTube rather than on Vimeo.
I also, in response to student feedback, created some Quizlet study materials. Click the Quizlet link to try them.
A next step will be to involve students in the creation of such materials—rather than my doing so. That may wait until next year, however, since I want to introduce this year’s students to instruction in using Survey Monkey survey creation software.
Please go here to evaluate the video shown above
It would be fun to teach an entire course on these topics.

Reading, Writing, and Watching User Manuals

Maybe it is my aging. Maybe it is a lack of motivation. Maybe it is a lack of focus on my part. Gone are the times when I used to master a new piece of software or a new computer in a few hours—exploring every drop down menu. Gone is my ability (or the time needed) to write a succinct user’s guide for the new machine and feel comfortable being a resident expert of its capabilities. Ah, my TRS 80 Level I machine—sometimes I miss you!

Fortunately now there are increasingly available excellent screencasts which clearly explain features of software. I find of special value MacMost Videos, Screencastsonline.com, and the superb presentations by David Sparks. When I am producing my own screencast I find most useful Screenflow though I am becoming impressed with Clarify‘s didactic potential.

Just downloaded the new OSX Yosemite Operating System onto one of my Mac’s. I find that it is worth the investment to purchase online tutorials that hand-hold one through the different features. I’ll have my undergraduate research assistants go through them before we install it on one of my office machines. In the interim I need to cycle through all my apps and see which ones work with the new OS, which don’t but are essential for my needs, and which ones I no longer need or have totally forgotten

David’s Wayback Machine – Pioneering Web 2.0 Technology Tools (Part 1) Jan 6, 2009

There was a time when I kept rough drafts of everything I wrote. Now, I am no longer in that habit and am in the process of cleaning out all my files (both electronic and legal-pad format). It is amusing to (re)discover some early writings when I thought I was at the leading edge of knowing about, sharing, and using “technology learning tools”

I find interesting the existence of the Internet Wayback archive project, though I’m uneasy about such a huge amount of Internet detritus (especially my own) using up cyberspace. Recently I’ve made time to attempt to clean up my own Internet garbage (old accounts, false starts on blogs). With some amusement I rediscovered some of my first efforts to promulgate into the classroom technology tools with 25 Carroll freshmen. (I have chosen NOT to revive the dead links in this piece).

Original 2009 piece follows here:

I’ve begun developing a presentation I’m scheduled to give on January 16 to Carroll faculty tentatively titled “Pioneering Web 2.0 Learning Tools with Carroll Students: Educational Technology of the Future, Catching Up with What Fifth-Graders Already Know, or Another Fad? “I hope to share with interested members of the Carroll community some of the Web 2.0 learning tools and resources that I have explored this past semester(Download FYS 100 Section U Syllabus – Dr, David Simpson Labor Day Version PDF with my students (who were especially playful with their photoshop skills).

I am toying with the idea of showing what I can NOW do in some kind of class—possibly for alumni or faculty. I would draw upon my knowledge gained since 2009 about the application of technology learning tools—especially drawing upon resources like this? Anybody interested? If so, email me—or send me a message via owl.

Retooling and Sharpening my Technology Learning Tools – Without Injury

This is that interesting time of the academic year when I am trying to bring the semester to a soft-landing and concomitantly prepare for the fall semester. This summer I hope to revisit several books that have especially informed me about uses of digital tools for teaching—especially Michelle Pacansky-Brock’s Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies, Susan Manning and Kevin E. Johnson’s The Technology Toolbelt for Teaching, Steve Johnson’s Digital Tools for Teaching, and Julie Lindsay and Vicki A. Davis’ inspirational Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time.

The writings of Alec Couros through his informative Becoming a Networked Learner and Curtis J. Bonk have impacted how I teach, how I learn, and how I “reach out” to others via social media. The challenge continues how to find balance between tool use and being controlled or constrained rather than enabled by the tool.

I see that Jane Hart has opened nominations for her 8th annual Top-Tools-for-Learning List. I think I’ll withhold my vote until early this fall so that I have more time to better answer the following critical questions:

Which of these tools will enhance my research and my communication capabilities?
Which of these tools do I want all my students to know how to use? (Which, on the other hand, are better suited for my advanced research assistants?)
Which of these tools will be around in four years?
Which of these tools serve me best when I am engaged in my role as partner of Schneider Consulting?
Among subsets of tool types, which best serve my needs?
How much learning time do I or my students need to invest to use these tools?
How portable are these tools across the browsers I most frequently use?
How portable are these tools across the hardware and different operating systems I most frequently use?
How much of the attractiveness of these tools to me is simply due to their “wow factor” and the fun they engender?
Will mastering this tool increase the likelihood of my becoming a more effective teacher or enhance my ability to learn.

My Top 10 Personal Learning Resources—Always in Flux

A common theme I’ve encountered in a number of meetings and informal conversations with faculty, staff, students, trustees, and alumni is a growing awareness of the rapidity of change in higher education—in how we teach, in how we learn, in from whom we learn, in where we learn, and even in in what times of the day and night we learn! These concerns are addressed well by the new learning avenues explored by the shared online learning insights of Debbie Morrison on the distinction between the creation of personal learning experiences (PLE’s) and personal learning networks (PLN’s) . I am also increasingly influenced by the “the learning flow” concept advanced by Jane Hart.

Even as I proctor an exam while writing this blog post I am learning online—checking my Twitter account especially for posts by

Thank you, fellow educators across the world for all you share and how you teach and inspire me. Teaching and learning clearly are not constrained to the classroom.

Movenote Revisited

Across my 35 years of teaching at Carroll I have been blessed to have highly skilled, patient, playful student research assistants who cheerfully and ably respond to my hurried, fly-by” task assignments such as “learn how to use Movenote and report back to me its potential value”. Thank you, student friends, for your support and for your being part of Dr. Simpson’s Neighborhood. Here is a result from our early explorations this year of the capabilities of Movenote – Click on the link: Angela and Amy Tutorial on Movenote.

Here is an example of what Angela learned THIS SEMESTER about how Movenote has evolved—Click on this link: Much has improved!

I have much for which to be thankful as a professor. Especially I am thankful for the delightful opportunities to learn along with students such as these!

Phoumany, Angela, and David Explore Lucid Press

Click here for an introduction by David.

Phoumany Phouybanhdyt (Class of 2014) ‘s thoughts:

Lucidpress is advertised as a design and layout app for anyone to make print and digital documents. Recent reviews which we examined have been favorable. Personally, I am impressed with what this application can do, although there are a few problems I encountered while learning to use it. Presently Lucidpress is still in its Beta version, so my hope is that when it transitions away from a Beta version on April 21st, 2014 , these gremlins will disappear.

To explore the features of Lucidpress, I made a sample print flyer, print invitation, and a digital newsletter. Overall, I think Lucidpress is relatively easy to use. You have the ability to work from either a template or from a blank slate. The tools and options are not difficult to maneuver.
The look of this application is very sleek and organized. When working on the digital newsletter, I was able to add a live hyperlink, embed videos, and even use a scrolling effect for the text box. Inside the digital newsletter I created, one could click a text link which redirected the user to a Facebook event in a new window. Lucidpress allows the user much room for creativity.
Things I especially liked. What I love about Lucidpress is the overall sleekness of the products you can produce and how easy it is to use. Of course, I still have a lot to learn and the full capabilities are far beyond what I have explored in the hour I took to investigate its capabilities. This app essentially allows one to do what Microsoft Publisher can do, but more! Another neat feature of Lucidpress is that you can link it to Google Drive and share it with members of a team. This allows multiple users to collaborate on the same project and share comments. Moreover, one can share the finished project in multiple ways: Embedding it on a site, sharing a link, or sending it via e-mail. This application is currently free in its Beta stage when you make a free account. I would highly recommend this product.

Things in Need of Improvement. A couple problems I encountered while using Lucidpress included issues with video embedding, hyperlink embedding, and sharing the project. With the videos, I was able to get them embedded, but when I previewed the document, the videos failed to play. I had some initial issues with embedding a hyperlink, but it appears this may have been a fluke. In regards to sharing the project, I attempted to create a link and tried to copy and paste it into a new browser. I was able to get the link copied but when in a new window it refused to give me the option to paste. This issue is also apparent when trying to paste the link into a document and other locations. Sharing via e-mail appeared to go through to a Gmail account but a Microsoft Outlook account failed to receive the invitation to view. More trials will need to be done to figure this out.
Here is an example created with Lucid Press by a fellow research assistant, Angela Wong.

Please give us feedback about this blog piece review and/or your experiences with Lucid Press by responding to this short survey. Click here to take survey

Thanks in advance!

Phoumany and David (Angela, too!)

Thinking Horizontally

Just started reading the NMC Horizon Report 2014 Higher Education Edition.

A pdf overview can be found here, though the report is well worth reading in its rich entirety.

Much to ponder here—and to compare with the 2013 K-12 report which guides the FlatConnections Project.

I am impressed by the expertise and global breadth of the 2024 Expert panel (and flattered that one of them chose to follow my Twittering). In my judgment one missing expert is Jane Hart.

To be continued…

Where does the time go? Oh!

Monday…

A typical whirlwind day. Arrive at the office by 7:15, but no time to flirt with Gert (pictured above) because I needed to establish work assignments for the student assistants before they came in. Maybe I should make time to explore the new free for teachers accounts of Basecamp. Wednesday will be the 2nd Exam in PSY205.

I had a good but too brief Skype session with Inci Aslan for updates on her Rainbow Kids project in Turkey. Must make the time for a more leisurely follow up.

I’ve been using Skype A LOT lately now that I have mastered some software (Pamela and CallNote) that lets me easily record the conversations for later study. Recently it has proven invaluable as I attempted to mentor an undergraduate at another institution seeking advice about a survey she was conducting in Argentina.

I brief follow-up regarding several students’ letters of recommendations. Two students delightfully inform me that they have been invited for interviews (at Marquette and Illinois State, respectively). Then it is (past) time to submit a PsyCRITIQUES revision of the most interesting, provocative book I have reviewed in the past seven years. Meanwhile, my Research seminar students experience first hand the purported advantages of brain training software. There are so many claims made on the Internet and in the media in general (Science News, NPR, ABC News) about such “programs like Lumosity and Positscience. Finally, I join my research students for a brief review of SPSS. Here is YOUR chance to see how much statistics and experimental design you recall from when YOU took my course:). Try me . Hee, hee.

I was generally pleased with the quality of the surveys they developed using our new Gold Survey Monkey account.

So much to teach. So much to learn. So much research which could/should be done. So much to share. But the clock is winding down…

Wednesday…

… And now it is two days later. Time to take stock while I proctor two consecutive exams for the next five hours. The book review revision was accepted for publication and forwarded to the American Psychological Association. I hope that my citation of Jane Hart’s seminal work will introduce her to a broad audience of psychology technological learning neophytes who might benefit from all she has taught me. Thank you again, inspirational Virtual Friend and Mentor.

The Gardner and Davis book is now “required reading” for all my friends, parents of friends, and “followers.” Here is a good synopsis (not mine) for those who, alas, don’t have the time to read it:)