Description

Paraphrased from the K12 Online Conference Website: The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. Each year a general theme is chosen and 4 strands encourage presentations supporting the theme. In all over 40 presentations are released intermittently throughout the two weeks of the conference. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” 24 hour marathon bringing both presenters and participants together around the world.

Production Notes:

For the second year in a row, I’ve volunteered on the Help Desk Team.  Both years the committee has proven to be a hot bed of qualified, eager and determined ed-tech types.  We provide a wiki for support, produce screencasts as needed, monitor the helpdesk gmail account, twitter accounts and “sit” in the live meebo room, as much as possible.  In our organizational meetings leading up to the conference, the team discusses the best ways we feel we can support the conference and then put things in motion.  I have found the individuals I’ve worked with to be real “can do” people – an idea comes up, it’s discussed and then next thing you know, it’s put into action!

Description

Over the period of July 2006 to August 2007 I was hired as an International Consultant for Simon Fraser University to work within the OUSL Capacity Enhancement Project (part of the Distance Education Modernization Project(DEMP))One of the objectives of this deployment was to "Train, coach and mentor OUSL faculty and staff in the design, development and use of instructional materials and enhanced use of ICT including MOODLE." To meet this objective, I developed, designed and/or presented a variety of workshops at OUSL and for DEMP.

Production Notes:

The workshops in which I was involved included:

Advanced Word For Academics

Writing for the Web (Online Course)

Hot Potatoes

Creating Effective Learning Objects using Flash

Instructional Design Using Moodle

Advanced Powerpoint

Audio for Educators

Faculty Awareness Sessions

Hands On Moodle

Description

From the Conference Programme: "This is a different kind of workshop – your presenter, Sue Lister will be online, not in a classroom – coming to you from Sri Lanka! And you will ‘attend’ online not by going to a classroom! At the specified time of the workshop, you will access the workshop website and communicate first through a text-chat area and then as we proceed and get bolder, we will try voice, video and even shared desktops! Prepare to maximize your computer’s resources as we go on a virtual tour of education tools, resources, software and ideas. There will be some pre-workshop activities to get you set up and started on your investigation into collaborative, open-source education software.

Production Notes:

Here is a quote from my blog posting on this topic:

"One thing, that I found extremely helpful when doing this workshop, solo, was the use of another computer. It sounds like over-kill but had I not had a second computer, showing me what the students were seeing in WebHuddle, I think things would have been disastrous…there were many times when I had to re-arrange the application on my desktop so that what I wanted to be seen…could be seen over the miles."

(YouTube Video - 3.5 megs - 2:30min - no audio)

Description

Three workshops were presented - two at the Chinese Traditional Medicine University (CTMU) while the third was held at the Sino-Canadian College of Guangxi University(SCC). At CTMU I did an informational session about education technologies ESL teachers may be interested in using in their classrooms - Podcasting, Blogging and Hot Potatoes. The second workshop was more of a hands-on session where I reviewed how to create learning activities with hot potatoes and then went step-by-step over the process of recording and uploading audio. I also showed how to publish a powerpoint to the web. For the Sino-Canadian folks I looked at podcasting or more specifically incorporating audio in the classroom.

Production Notes:

A few very positive things came out of these workshops - two teachers started class blogs and I became aware of the possible use of screencasting for grammar training. I have started work on an action research project on the topic here.

Here is a quote from the blog posting I made about these activities:

"At CTMU I did an informational session about education technologies ESL teachers may be interested in using in their classrooms - Podcasting, Blogging and Hot Potatoes. The second workshop was more of a hands-on session where I reviewed how to create learning activities with hot potatoes and then went step-by-step over the process of recording and uploading audio. I also showed how to publish a powerpoint to the web. For the Sino-Canadian folks I looked at podcasting or more specifically incorporating audio in the classroom."

Description

An Educator's Guide to Blogging

Here is the topical outline for the workshop:

*What is a Blog?
*What does blogging offer to teaching and learning?
*What are particular projects, lessons or activities in which a teacher might use a blog?
*What are the issues surrounding classroom blogs (assessment, safety, spam, etc.)
*What is the process for blogging in the classroom?
*How do I start Blogging with my class?

Production Notes:

It was an honour to present this workshop to the Rainbow District School Board Secondary School Teachers. I grew up in the Rainbow District and due to circumstances beyond my control attended 6 of the schools in the region! In fact, one of my ex-high school teachers was a participant - talk about a mind warp! Some of the teachers in the Manitoulin area had been experimenting with blogs while others were merely curious about the process, the learning and the issues.

As can be expected, the two hours went very quickly with lots of discussion and questions from the participants. It was suggested that this should be the first of several such workshops to aid teachers in leveraging the new technologies offered by the web.

Description

In January, 2006 I was booked to teach two workshops for Nipissing University Bachelor of Education - teacher-candidates (and anyone else interested!):

Blogs, Podcasts, Wiki's and Screencasts - A Teacher's Introduction

Broaden your teaching strategies (or at least your geek language!) by learning about these new tools.  In this workshop you will get an overview of four powerful learning technologies which you can apply to your teaching.  I will  1) provide many examples of how they are currently being used (from Primary to Senior),  2) address some of the associated problems and 3) highlight some of the reasons why a teacher would want to incorporate blogs, podcasts or screencasts into their curriculum - What do the students get out of it?  What learning opportunities arise?  Lastly, I will outline some of the software and skills needed to produce these tools.  The workshop is focused on  "Awareness" as a first step into these new teaching strategies - you will not create blogs, podcasts, wiki's or screencasts during this session but my goal is to leave you WANTING TO!!

Hot Potatoes - Software for creating Quizzes, Crosswords, and other worksheets

In this hands-on workshop we will investigate the exercises and quizzes you can create using free Canadian software from the "Half-Baked" software company.  Come to the workshop with the software loaded onto your computer and we will walk through the creation of Short Answer quizzes, Jumbled Sentence Exercises, Crossword puzzles and Matching/Ordering Quizzes, and of course, multiple choice questions.  Although the software provides web-based exercises, many can be easily altered for paper-based delivery, as well.  You will leave the workshop with at least two products you can use on your next placement!

Production Notes:

Here's my bio for these workshops: Backed by a Masters in Education Technology, Susan Lister has extensive multimedia experience in Canada, the United Kingdom, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates.  In addition to her 8 years of college-level teaching, she has instructed online courses, mentored online instructors and developed many e-learning courses.  She enjoys presenting at conferences and providing teacher-development workshops. Her dream is to have a balanced work life of education research/development and teaching both online and in the classroom.

Description

In the summer of 2005, I had a great time teaching two workshops through Canadore College's Summer School of the Arts programme (affectionately known as 'Artsperience').

Digital Camera Workout

Get more out of your digital camera with tip and tricks offered in this one-week course. Learn simple techniques in composition, lighting and exposure, in addition to how to deal with natural lighting conditions, shutter speeds and aperture. Using Photoshop Elements, you will learn how to remove red-eye from your photos, crop out unwanted aspects parts of your photos, lighten, darken or even improve the focus of your photo.

Sharing Digital Photos

Investigate the various ways you can share your digital photos in print, on your TV and on the computer screen. After a quick review of how to download photos from your camera we will look at the best techniques for sharing photos. E-mail, photo gallery web sites, PowerPoint, video and DVD formats will be covered.

Production Notes:

I was looking forward to teaching an entire summer of multimedia workshops with Canadore but unfortunately, due to low registration numbers, only the two classes noted above proceeded. Perhaps next summer I will also get to teach these courses:

Photoshop Elements Intermediate Course - Your friends and family are sure to be impressed when they receive a personalized electronic greeting from you. Our unique course will take you through the steps of planning, creating, and sending your masterpiece to your friends and family. Using popular software Photoshop Elements and Macromedia Flash or Swish, the instructor will guide you through planning, design, delivery of messages and saving your designs.

Digital Storytelling; Electronic Greetings - An emerging trend in the storytelling world is the creating of digital stories. In this weeklong course you will bring your stories to life with your own photos and your own narration. Add background music, and you’ve created a truly enjoyable experience. Using state-of-the-art software you will produce a short 3-5 minute presentation that is packaged for sharing on the internet, your computer or TV. Come prepared on the first day with a story idea and some photos or objects you would like to incorporate.

Description

Prior to the CTELT Conference in Dubai, October 2003, I organized a Pre-Conference Academy entitled, "Enhancing Teaching and Learning with Technology". My school, Dubai Men's College hosted the Academy. The PCA was well-received by post-secondary instructors around the country - it did not take long to completely fill each of the 30 positions available.

Production Notes:

I not only organized the PCA but I also presented several workshops at it, including "Using Digital Cameras in Class", "Image Manipulation for Educational Purposes", "Swish Learning Objects" and an "Educator's Review of the PDF format". The other workshops were presented by talented people I worked with at DMC and one international guest.

We received many positive comments from participants. They felt we had provided the right information, the right amount of information and we had presented the information in the right format - it was a good feeling to provide fellow instructors with effective training.