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Download last week's usage report for the UA's iTunes U private site.

A recent article by Jack Roberts appearing in Campus Technology, "Making Lecture Capture Work Lessons from the Pros," quotes practitioners on the value of lecture capture. At the UA, it's been my experience that the faculty members involved in some form of lecture capture speak well of it. Consider these observations from the field.

James Craig, professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Policy at the University of Maryland Dental School in Baltimore: "With lecture capture students have more opportunity to learn and a greater level of performance because of it." Craig explains that in his field the curriculum is visually intensive so with lecture capture students can go back to a given lecture and watch it at their own rate, reviewing particular points until they feel they have learned it.

Jerry Overmyer, mathematics and science outreach coordinator at UNC's College of Natural and Health Sciences, says concerns that lecture capture lessens a prof's relevance far from the case. "We are finding that lecture capture is allowing those teachers who used to do mostly traditional lecture in their classrooms be more engaged and personally understand the learning process of all their students." In addition, he said that "What used to be classwork (the ‘lecture’) is done at home…and what used to be homework (assigned problems) is now done in class." This is something I've written about in other entries re: lecture capture and what I've seen in many of the new courses available in iTunes U.

Kenneth Landreth, course director, MICB701 Immunity, Infection, and Disease, at WVU's School of Medicine sees at least three distinct advantages: 1) "we are able to review lecture presentations in our own courses and across the curriculum to revise and validate that the material is presented correctly and consistently." 2) "we can work with faculty to improve lecture presentations and to evaluate test questions on ‘high stakes’ examinations to be sure they are fairly constructed." 3) instructors are "able to re-purpose lectures each year to deliver a summer remedial course for students who fail a course during the regular term."

Does it help students learn? I've reported on the benefits to student learning in the past and this article adds that an October 2011 survey of medical students at WVU found that 93% of the students responding to the survey reported that they earned better grades with the aid of recorded lectures. Another student survey, this one at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, found that 75% of respondents said that lecture capture had a positive impact on their performance in class.

If you are considering lecture capture, Roberts provides these three Tips for First-Timers.

1. Determine an attendance policy
2. Implement active learning
3. Try Everything! don't worry about getting it right the first time you try it.
   

Download the private site usage report for the UA's iTunes U for the week of April 22nd.

Having long been convinced of the value of student-centered learning, I found Scaffolding Student Learning Designing with Social Media by Leanne Cameron and Miriam Tanti pretty interesting. Both of the authors are on the faculty of education at Australian Catholic University. The paper discusses two projects in which students directed their own learning experiences and used social media to collaborate and share resources. I found the article in pages 54-60 of eLearning Papers Special Edition 2012. [download a copy]

Cameron and Tanti conclude that students as learning designers "clearly demonstrated that the act of designing can facilitate deep learning in the classroom. It enabled students to be independently engaged in investigation, work autonomously and collaboratively, and it also provided their teachers with rich opportunities for key teaching moments." The projects noted that classroom dynamics changed for the better with teachers being seen a source of support and advice. We often speak of this when discussing student-centered learning and have talked of replacing the sage on the stage with the guide on the side. Check out this article for more details.

Am reading through a UNESCO Working Paper Series on Mobile Learning "Turning on Mobile Learning: Illustrative Initiatives and Policy Implications."©2012 You can download a copy from the UNESCO website. UNESCO published this one about mobile learning in North America and another for Latin America.

Although eschoolnews.com is largely aimed at K-12 I think it is useful to consider what educators and technologists in the K-12 arena are doing. Afterall, students at the upper end of K-12 will be coming to the UA soon. We need to understand what will their skills and expectations be or we'll lose the best of the crop to ASU.

An April 24th article "Experts Outline Mobile Learning Tips" by Laura Devaney reviews an April 17 Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) webinar in which experts shared strategic planning tips for mobile learning initiatives and explained how to unite chief technology officers, administrators, and educators. During the webinar the point was made that mobile learning is not about the device, something I find all to often deflects what can be done to advance learning with iPads, smartphones, and tablets. As one speaker said, "Mobile learning is about philosophically changing the way you’re going to conduct instruction inside the classroom.” Another suggested that mobile learning is also about "breaking down the walls of the traditional school day,” he said. “Now it’s learning, anytime, anywhere.”

On March 30th, Robert M. Gates, former U.S. Secretary of Defense and now President at Texas A &M, received the University of Arizona 2012 Executive of the Year award.  Gates' remarks focused on leadership, including his 10 qualities of leadership gleaned from his 50+ years in public life coming from the challenges he faced leading the CIA, the Defense Dept, and Texas A&M. [watch the video on YouTube]

Gates said that leadership is much more than managing well. A strong leader acts as a guide. Unfortunately, we are desperate for leaders today. challenges he faced leading the CIA, Defense Dept and Texas A&M: how to lead and implement  change to make a strong organization even better. He framed his qualities of leadeship around the challenge of leading and implementing change to make a strong organization even better.

Download the usage report for the UA's iTunes U private site for the week of April 15 - 23, 2012.

I have an iMac on my desktop, a 4-5 year old MacBookPro courtesy of the UA, and an iMac at home. I run Sophos on all three and make sure it is up-to-date. While Macs are not immune to malware, it's nothing like being in the Windows world. Still, I'm not naive and tell people not to buy into the idea that Macs don't get infected. Today, Sophos published "One in Every Five Mac Computers Harbors Malware, Sophos Research Reveals." According to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, "Mac users need a wake-up call about the growing malware problem. What did Sophos report?

Here is a list of our best videos in the UA's YouTube EDU channel, organized by subject.

College of Science Lecture Series

Great Courses Great Faculty

Campus Lectures

Undergraduate Biology Research Program

Honors College Undergraduate Research Forum

Water Resources Research Center

WSP Water Sustainability Program

Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs

Award Winning Researchers

Science & Technology