This list is updated several times a year and used for several Schreyer Presentations and seminars. If you have some good examples of technology being used for education, please feel free to add it to our list.
Blogs (blogs.psu.edu)
The focus here is on various pedagogies as it relates to blogging, as well as introducing the audience to the PSU blog platform. Here’s a link to the Getting Started Guide, and the full handbook (pdf).
- SITE Blog: institutional, multi-author blog.
- Philosophy blog: faculty using a personal blog as a multi-author blog, adding students. NOTE that this is a single blog, that the entire class can create entries on. This has been a very successful model for Chris Long as it pertains to creating a blogging community of users (vs. everyone with separate blogs). See Chris’s rubric for assessing student blog use.
- SCIED 458: the instructors that co-teach this course are using this as the hub of the course, in addition to the blog. Illustrates the power and flexibility of the PSU blog platform to also power websites.
- ePort: Good example of an eportfolio, something Education is leveraging a lot these days for students that will eventually go out and become teachers.
Media Commons (mediacommons.psu.edu)
The focus here is the services offered via Media Commons and Media and Technology Services (MTSS) at PSU. Key points include:
– The ability for students to rent equipment from MTSS
– Media commons facilities and professional staff that will assist students in editing video
– Linking video projects to learning objectives and pedagogy.
Examples:
- French 401: interesting example of a video that might replace a student presentation in class. This method can open up more class time for instructors (vs. losing class time due to many student presentations).
Educational Gaming Commons (EGC) (gaming.psu.edu)
The focus here is on the link between games and education, and how the EGC can support faculty along these lines. They offer things like engagement awards, where faculty can submit short proposals to have games custom-built for a course. Also, the EGC lab consists of software and consoles that students can leverage for course-related assignments, as well as reserve the room for course use.
Examples:
- Lab: 6A Findlay Commons @ University Park
- Chemblaster: an example of a game built for introductory chemistry courses.
- SimHealth: using an off-the-shelf software package for health policy.
- EconU: A game used to teach intro economic concepts.
- Gamification: This is actually a blog, but it’s using a gamification strategy. On this page, students can see who has the most commented-on blog entry. This is, in essence, a leaderboard and worked well in this course to motivate students to contribute more meaningful posts.
Training Services (its.psu.edu/training)
Training services primarily deals with technology training, both face-to-face and online. The website typically lists all the training programs each semester. Training that faculty might be interested in include ANGEL, blogs, podcasting and video.
Examples:
- Lynda.com videos: through a university-wide contract, all PSU employees and students have access to Lynda.com technical training. This website has thousands of video-based training modules on a vast number of technologies, primarily software packages.
Wikispaces (wikispaces.psu.edu)
I typically focus on teamwork and collaboration as it applies to Wikispaces, but also stress the open nature of the platform to support many different uses (for instance, collaboration on grants).
Examples:
- Biology 110: course delivery
- IST 440w: research collaboration – requires special permission (email pursel[at]psu.edu)
- PSY 525: course hub
- “Flipping the Classroom” information (PDF)
- TLT Classroom Flip Support Page
- Schreyer Institute Research Opportunities around Classroom Flip models.
VoiceThread (voicethread.psu.edu)
Examples:
- Biology 12: creating online content
- Biology 110: Remediation for tricky assessment items
- General discussion: note how each individual can respond in a somewhat different method (text, audio, video)
- Visual Discussion Board: Nice way to add a bit more media to a discussion board format.
- Overview of Elearning Authoring Environments: something I put together to simply test Voicethread. NOTE: the content of the voicethread represents my opinions on some of the authoring environments available here at PSU.
Lecture Capture (capture.psu.edu)
The University is currently piloting various lecture capture technologies, specialized pieces of software leveraged for capturing lectures and providing the lecture online in video format. Currently no public examples from Penn State are available, but several instructors are recording their lectures and making them available to students as resources for the course. You can learn more about lecture capture, specifically what variables people are examining in this field, through this document drafted by the Schreyer Institute and ETS.
iTunes University (itunes.psu.edu)
This is an iTunes interface to a large collection of Penn State podcasts and related files and resources. In addition to many PR-related podcasts, such as interviews with faculty and coaches and recruiting messages, faculty are using iTunes University to record lectures, post interviews with industry professionals and also having students produce podcasts as class assignments. Most courses are not accessible, but the site does provide some ‘open’ and demo courses to view.
Post last updated: 10/16/12