Tag Archives: presentations

History of Educational Technology (pre-computer) by Schwier & Wilson

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Dr. Richard Schwier and Dr. Jay Wilson were our guests in EC&I 831 on the night of January 13, 2009. They gave a wonderfully entertaining and informative presentation on the history of educational technology before the introduction of the computer. Below is the captured video of the presentation, taken from Elluminate. The full Elluminate session is also available here.

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A couple of my favourite insights voiced in the comments during this presentation were (a) where did teachers get the time to do things this way?, and (b) the idea that teachers often hoarded the resources they created. The first point is quite interesting as I find it still the most frequent complaint from teachers using technology today. The second point interests me as I feel that the hoarding mentality may have been necessary at an earlier time in history, but I am not sure education in general has really adjusted to this perceived “age of abundance” in relation to resources and information. Or, perhaps I am just being naive.

Also related, do check out Dr. Schwier’s presentation from last year on the history of educational technology where he takes a different approach, and focuses on the people of educational technology vs. the tools.

Rick & Jay - History of Edtech

A Busy Week

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The last seven days have been very busy for me, especially with presentations. Here are some of the highlights, and a few things to come.

Last Friday (Nov. 21/08), I presented Academic Integrity and the Culture of Sharing to instructors of the Faculty Certificate Program with SIAST (in Saskatoon). View slide deck.

On Saturday (Nov. 22/08), I presented on the use of technologies in the research process for the Learning From Practice conference. I created a wiki to support this presentation.

On Monday (Nov. 24/08), I co-presented with Dean Shareski on The New Interactive Classroom: Education, Teaching & Globalization for the Talking about School & Society series. Related to this, there was something quite interesting that happened earlier that day. My colleagues, Patrick Lewis and Marc Spooner, were interviewed for a local CBC Radio program called Blue Sky. While this was going on live, I asked people from Twitter to call in and ask questions and email the program. Before we knew it, we had calls from Virginia and Massachusetts, and an email was reported from Holland. Not bad for local radio, and I really have to want to do more with this idea. The radio program is well worth listening to, so here’s the link.

On Wednesday (Nov. 26/08), I spoke to a group of undergraduate students about social justice and technology. We were INCREDIBLY lucky to have had Howard Rheingold join us from California to speak about the concept of smart mobs and technology for political action/activism.. Howard is a pioneer of online communities, has been doing great stuff recently with the Social Media Classroom, and is one of my heroes. I put together a wiki to support this presentation as well.

On Thursday (Nov. 27/08), I presented from my office to Manitoba for Awakening Possibilities. I was joined by a list of terrific presenters as we were tasked with “5 minutes to make a difference.” These presentations have been archived, and are available here.

And now, after this busy week, it is time to switch gears as I will be leaving to Ukraine next week. A colleague and I are involved in the project “Youth Development of Democratic Citizenship” funded by a Partnerships for Tomorrow Phase II grant. My role will be to look at how technology can mediate long-term partnerships in the Ukraine, and focus on concepts of democratic media, digital citizenship, and social justice.

And when I get back … I have a week to finish my annual review forms, and write a chapter on the concept of open teaching.

I am happy (and lucky) to be busy … but I’m just a little stressed.

Interactive Video Object Manipulation

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Dan Goldman recently posted a video on Interactive Video Manipulation, a new technology being developed. This has great possibilities, and the demo is very impressive.


Interactive Video Object Manipulation from Dan Goldman on Vimeo.

I can’t wait until I get to play with a consumer version.

This demo illustrates our research to bring interactivity to video editing: Our system analyzes videos using computer vision techniques, enabling interactive annotation, browsing, and even drag-and-drop composition of new still images using video footage. This is a joint research project of Adobe and the University of Washington.

Talkin’ About School & Society

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My colleagues, Dr. Patrick Lewis and Dr. Marc Spooner, are initiating a series of informal discussions that will hopefully help bridge the spaces between university scholars and the general public, and hopefully result in some very important conversations with people in our community. I am excited that I have been asked to lead off the first conversation which will be themed around “The New Interactive Classroom: Education, teaching & globalization.” See the official poster below:

Talkin' About School & Society - Poster

Come join us for snacks, drinks, and most importantly, conversation. Invite anyone who would be interested, and it doesn’t have to be people connected directly to education. We’re hoping for a great turnout!

This first event is scheduled for November 24/2008, 7-9 p.m. at the upper level of La Bodega in Regina, Saskatchewan. I hope to see you there!

Green Screen (Chroma Key) Basics

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As I’ve stated before, Izzy Video is one of the best resources I have come across in regards to learning digital video techniques. Izzy Video is not free (it’s about $45 USD for a 6 month subscription), but Izzy does release a few free videos from time-to-time. The latest free video outlines the basics of using a green screen in video production. As usual, it is very well done and informative.

Izzy Video

And, if you have missed it, I highly recommend taking a look at Matthew Needleman’s K12Online Conference presentation, “Kicking it Up a Notch Film School For Video Podcasters“. This is an excellent overview of the procedures and techniques you should know to get started with video in the classroom. Matthew has done a wonderful job of making this presentation equally informative and entertaining.

Behind Every Tweet: K12Online Presentation Teaser #2

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My K12 Online Conference Presentation 2008 will be released one week from today. The conference has already started with Stephen Heppel’s Preconference Keynote and there are so many great presenters scheduled. To keep you interested, I thought I would release my second teaser. This one looks at the mystery behind every Tweet.

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If you missed teaser #1, here it is. You may also be interested in the original teaser for my online graduate course.

I’ll link to my K12 Online Conference presentation when it goes up. Thanks for watching!

Academic Integrity and the Culture of Sharing

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I recently gave a keynote presentation to help start off Academic Integrity Awareness Week at the University of Saskatchewan. The presentation, titled Academic Integrity and the Culture of Sharing, covered traditional approaches to academic integrity, described an emerging culture of sharing among students, and discussed how this culture can inform our notions of academic integrity, honesty, cheating, and student collaboration.

Academic Integrity Keynote

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: academic integrity)

Here’s a great article covering the event by Rory MacLean of The Sheaf.
Sheaf Article - Copyright Versus Copyleft

If you want video, a recorded Ustream video of the event is available here. I start at about 19 minutes in.

Below is a link to the audio provided by Ginger K.

I sincerely want to thank everyone who attended, live or via Ustream. I love having supportive people in my life that enjoy listening to what I have to say. Thanks especially to Tereigh at the U of S, Dr. Jim Greer, Dr. Ernie Barber, and to my friend and hero, Dr. Richard Schwier.

Academic Integrity and the Culture of Sharing Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Open Doctrine? K-12 Online Conference Teaser

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Here is the teaser and introduction to my K12 Online Conference presentation, in the form of a personal attack ad. As mentioned earlier on this blog, my presentation will be titled “Open, Social, Connected: Reflections of an Open Graduate Course Experience.” A portion of the presentation will be devoted to the idea of openness in education, and how the actualization of this concept helped to create a transparent culture of sharing among students and other course participants.

I hope you enjoy the teaser and I invite you to participate in the rest of the coming presentation at the K12 Online Conference.

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Thanks to Dan Carr for his narration and for helping bring this concept to life.

Oh … and there’s an edupunk version. :-)

The Write Stuff – K12 Online Conference Teaser

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My very talented colleague, Dr. Patrick Lewis, and the amazing Kathy Cassidy have put together a trailer for their upcoming K12 Online Conference presentation. Here it is:

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Cathy and Patrick have done some amazing stuff to bring stronger connections between students in our teacher education program and young children in the field. I am really looking forward to their presentation.

K12 Online Conference 2008

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I am happy to be one of the presenters for this year’s K12 Online Conference. The 2007 conference was one of my favourite educational events as there were so many excellent presentations. The conference is an example of open education at its best: open, transparent, free, and of high-quality. I am hoping that I can help add to the success of last year’s event.

Below is the official marketing flyer for the event. Please pass on the information to the teachers in your school, or other interested individuals.

K12 Online Conference Flyer

Many of the presenters are putting up teasers for their sessions. I will not have time to put one together, but I can offer the trailer created for EC&I 831, the course that will be the focus of my K12 Online presentation. Apologies to those who have seen it before.

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I hope you can attend the conference. My presentation will be titled “Open, Social, Connected: Reflections of an Open Graduate Course Experience.” I hope it will give insight into the challenges of creating a networked learning experience for university students while sharing some of the real successes of the experience.

Check out what some of the other presenters are planning.