Sunday night: cleaning up after the dog and the kid. Reading. Reflecting on a good few days. In the past three days, I have seen my Mother and my best friend. I have exercised, gone grocery shopping, and managed to get my kid to understand that I mean what I say without either one of us shouting or crying.
After going through a lot of Pantone colors looking for just the right HTML color codes to freshen up the look of my site, I decided to work on a miniature crochet project. This will be for the Tanana Valley State Fair in Fairbanks, Alaska for 2023. Succulents are the flower/plant. The following image is a screenshot from the web. The colors and leaves are the inspirations for a crochet amigurumi plant. Here are the steps I've taken thus far: Look for samples Gather color ideas Search…
Just a few of the titles I read, and checked out, this month from the public library: Japanese wonder crochet: a creative approach... by Gayle Roehm Crochet Noro: 30 dazzling designs by Joy Aquilino Light-hearted reading Jenn McKinlay At the drop of a hat Buried to the brim Killer research Robert B. Parker Now and then Hundred-dollar baby The professional I've used Kindle Unlimited since September. I'll need to go back and review all the titles I read on my devices. The above are just those from…
A few of the titles and dates plus excerpts follow Transitioning from on campus to online by Janene McMahan | Jul 26, 2021 Your use of Canvas can help you translate your face-to-face course into an enjoyable online experience for you and your students. Here are a few steps to get you started, including how to build a template to use for each week or module and how to add your lectures right inside the editor. How to inspire success through student interaction by Janene McMahan | Jun 28, 2021 Get ready to…
What does access mean? In addition to the accessibility of your materials, consider other types of access. Students may not have the money to pay for good internet access or be in an area where it is available. Use the lens of ‘if you can’t reach it, it doesn’t matter if it is accessible.’ Therefore, any item you work to make fully accessible should be reachable by underrepresented tech audiences and poorer individuals. Students want to access and work on their studies using their mobile devices; making…
Recommend strategies and language to include in your syllabus to help address the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, try surveying students about their current routines and internet access.
Blackboard was upgraded last month to provide users with better performance and reliability. Get comfortable with the recent changes by reading our tips and solutions for some common tasks. These are the top things you need to know: The editor is more powerful, allows for distraction-free writing, dispels with the formatting nightmares of recent past, and allows you to make accessible materials easily.The date management tool interface has changed.Adding images, or anything you have stored on your local drive, is both a few more clicks and much…
Originally posted 10/20/2020 on iTeachU. I’ve been a web developer and a teacher for decades. These worlds overlap when it comes to accessibility. So, for this tip I’m going to define accessibility as making your materials usable for every student regardless of their abilities. More students than you’d suspect do the majority of their coursework on their phones, or may rely on borrowed or public computers. The pandemic has brought to light the number of people who live with insufficient or intermittent internet access. These students also benefit…
iTeach Online "iTeach Online offers foundational training in online course design. Through a series of 5 modules, faculty start to build a solid online course founded in current research and relevant learning experiences. Faculty who complete the self-paced version of iTeach Online are prepared to design and teach an online course, and are eligible for a Teachers Who Learn award, endorsed by the Provost’s Faculty Development Team. *iTeach Online will open for self-paced participants on Wednesday, May 6th." This is being tested by two co-workers right now. -- I've…
As an instructional designer, I help faculty with their courses. The faculty member is the content expert; I'm a support person. I want to help them make the course easy to navigate, engaging to the student—learning can be fun—and, whenever possible, inspire or remind the teacher why he or she loves doing this. In early 2014 I asked a faculty member to remember his favorite assignment from when he was in school. His face lit up immediately; he got excited and told me all about it. Then…
I've joked a bit about being a brand new homeschooling mom. However, that's not really what is happening. ICS, Immaculate Conception School, in Fairbanks where my son is in first grade is doing an AMAZING job of providing resources, a layout of what is due each day of every week including links to videos, audio files, sheets to print out for practice. Ah, print out... what if you don't have a printer? Well, you can use a regular piece of paper. Plus he has workbooks for math,…
I've been a data geek for quite some time. Right now you cannot see it on my site so much because I have not been explicit about it. However, I will be filling in how data and I have been happily intertwined over the years. At UAF in 1993 I worked for Administrative Services as a Total Quality Management (TQM) Coordinator. We, Melody Erickson and I, worked with 17 teams over two years. During the first part we co-taught and lead different units through TQM practices. During…
We embraced Quality Matters (QM) as a framework for continuous improvement of online and blended courses just over four years ago. To get a faculty perspective I reached out to Gary Copus, professor emeritus, and asked him to share any highlights, benefits or challenges experienced as part of certifying three UAF Justice courses: Introduction to Justice (JUST 110), Research Methods (JUST 222), and Ethics and Justice (JUST 300). This tip provides his answers and a few paths you might take to make use of Quality Matters. History…
Feedback Students should know whether they are on track. Many don’t. You can help. Seed your early feedback and scoring comments with phrases suggesting you want them to know what their goals are and you want them to know how to see your feedback. You may want them to open up an ongoing dialog with you about their progress. Describe how they check the feedback you provide and their scores. If this isn’t in your “Getting Started” folder, consider adding it and making an announcement linking to…