CTC Ed Tech Jan. 14, 2013

Welcome back!  

If your beginning of the semester has been like mine, it's been hectic. Let's take a breath and move forward with our tasks and projects.

Here are my offerings for this week:

Creating a Climate for Learning. At the Adjunct Faculty Orientation at Chugiak-Eagle River Campus on January 7, I showed the 20-minute mentor video, How Do I Create a Climate for Learning in My Classroom? In the video, Dr. Maryellen Weimer presents a research-based case on the importance of creating a climate for learning in your classroom and then describes activities that can be used to encourage this climate. The biggest action an instructor can take to foster a climate for learning is to talk about learning often. I also like the suggestion to have the students write a paragraph on how they learn in this type of course at the beginning of the semester and then having them revise/rewrite the paragraph at the end of the semester. Dr. Weimer has more ideas on creating a climate for learning in the handouts and supplemental materials that are available on a secure part of the CAFÉ website. Log in with your UA username and password; scroll down the list to How Do I Create a Climate for Learning in My Classroom? Please note that the videos don't work. 

Detours, Digital and Otherwise. Now is the time to prepare for a weather or technology-related cancellation of your class. Minimally, set up a communication protocol that you can use if Blackboard is down or if class is cancelled. For distance classes, the eLearning Workgroup created a web page on Digital Detours and a handout is also available. 

My Blackboard. I hope you are getting used to the cool new features of our latest version of Blackboard. You've probably wondered about the red box with the number in it beside your name in the upper right corner. It's called My Blackboard.  Find out about it and be sure to watch the video on the page. The Updates area in My Blackboard is the source of the numbers in the red box; it indicates new notifications for your courses.  In the Updates area, click on the gear in the upper left to customize the notifications for all your courses. You can even turn them off. At the bottom of the notifications list is a link, View Notification Settings; click it if you want to customize the notifications for individual courses.