Maricopa's Web 2.0 Tour

Just yesterday, Maricopa's learning technologies brain trust gathered to coordinate what is an extremely comprehensive offering of Web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning. So far, it looks like our 08-09 tour will visit several colleges and include the following web 2.0 and web 2.0-related tools:

pbwiki, wetpaint, wikispaces, TeacherTube, YouTube, FLVix, Creative Commons, Flickr, Wikimedia, Pixenate, MyPictr, Blogger, Wordpress, dimdim, vroom, yugma, skype, Lively, VoiceThread, CrowdAbout, Jing, SnagIt, Screencast-o-matic, flipvideo; vimeo, kaltura, mailemotion, and gabmail.

Our schedule will be posted on the new MCLI site before the end of August. Stay tuned....

CommentPress

Cool tool to comment on written work: http://www.futureofthebook.org/commentpress/
Examples: http://www.futureofthebook.org/commentpress/examples/

Catching Up After Busiest Week of the Year

Having been at Maricopa for a brief year and a half, I'm learning that this last week could quite possibly be the worst of the year. Not only was it filled with last minute (and not so last minute) planning for the 2008 Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference (shameless plug), which now has a growing wait list, but I had to cram in a 2-day Sloan-C Conference in Carefree, AZ. It was worth it, presentations are available at Slideshare.

Electronic Plagiarism-Detection Tool Ruling may have Google Implications

Last Wednesday, March 26, 2008, a federal judge ruled that TurnItIn.com, a commercial plagiarism-detection tool does not in fact violate the copyright of students, even though it stores digital copies of their essays in the database that the company uses to check works for academic dishonesty. Click here to read more about the implications of this decision for digital services, such as Google's effort to scan books in major libraries and add them to its index for search purposes.

Desire2Learn CEO Speaks Up

Recently, John Baker, Desire2Learn's president and CEO, gave an interview where he discussed the case with us, its impact on the company and its customers, and the implications for education technology as a whole.

Blackboard vs Desire2Learn

Interested in keeping up with the Blackboard vs Desire2Learn saga? You can learn more at these sites:

http://www.desire2learn.com/patentinfo/
http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?topic=8
http://tatler.typepad.com/nose/2008/03/east-texas-cour.html

The Higher Learning Commission's Academic Quality Improvement Program

For me, this seems to be the Spring of peer review. In February, MCLI launched the Maricopa Quality Matters Peer-Reviewer Program and in March (over the last 3 days), I attended the the Higher Learning Commission's Academic Quality Improvement Program Peer Reviewer training in Chicago, Illinois. The training lasted a total of 55 hours over 2 1/2 days and was extremely valuable and insightful in many ways:

• what is the role of accreditation in the US
  
• who are accrediting bodies in the US and how were they established
• what are the options for accreditation and continuous improvement for institutions
  
• what is AQIP, how does it differ from PEAQ and how do institutions interact with each

It is my understanding that PEAQ is the traditional form of accreditation and that AQIP is the new kid on the block, at least over the past 7 years. From the past few days, I've learned that AQIP seems to be a much more continuous improvement process. PEAQ takes place every 10 years, while AQIP has contact with the institution regularly over a 5 year period in a process that emulates strategic planning. It seems that several institutions are opting in to AQIP and out of PEAQ (although an institution has to be PEAQ-approved to be able to participate in AQIP).

It may seem odd to some that an instructional technologist would be involved something like this, but this experience gave me such a comprehensive overview of quality and improvement issues in higher education. Our training concludes tomorrow and then I'm on the list to be a peer-reviewer. Aside from the time commitment (of 25-30 hours), I'm very much looking forward to participating.