Certifiably Flipped

My Flipped Classroom Certificate

This rumpled certificate arrived this week, along with my Sophia.org T-Shirt for successfully completing the Flipped Classroom Pathway Course . There were tutorials to listen to and quizzes to take. The last step was to create a flipped classroom tutorial, publish it to the Sophia.org site and submit it for review.

Hot though it may be at the moment, this flipping idea is not new. I seem to remember Patricia Cross made a remark to similar effect several years ago when asking why we spent so much time imparting the knowledge level info during class when we could be spending class time helping students apply the knowledge.

So though I was familiar with the concept, I found myself feeling a bit nervous when it came to creating the tutorial. The fields for listing the course description, objectives, and tags were helpful, as were tips for not only providing a slideshow or video.

What I found even more helpful were the tips on adding other documents or quizzes that would increase the impact of the tutorial you wanted learners to complete after viewing the tutorial. These items can certainly add to the preparation you want students to have before the face-to-face or live class session where the students are going to work with the material at a higher level.

Whether a person is going to search and use found materials as part of the pre-class session is up to the faculty member. The real opportunity is how to use to face-to-face time to best support the higher learning.

Can you get wireless on Amtrak?

The Zephier Line Has Outlets But No Wireless

Yesterday I asked the question about whether you can connect wirelessly on Amtrak. The answer--in some instances you can on trains and in some instances you can do so at the depot.

Here's the list: http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am/Layout&cid=1246044330724

Yet to explore: how effective your mobile hotspot is on various trains that don't have wireless.

Last year I faced some very icy roads and took the train to get into Denver. I appreciated the outlets so I could at least work on my laptop and keep my phone charged.

Wireless access is a great addition.

At Which Location Are You Most Productive?

Gist created a wonderful infographic on devices and work mobility. One of the items in this info- graphic represented people indicating the location they where they felt most productive: Office (46%), Home (38%), and "No Preference"(9%). The "No Preference" categories included planes, hotels, public transportation and coffee shops.

I now work from home, and sometimes go to a coffee shop when I need a change of scene to buoy productivity that seems to have slowed. While traveling I work from multiple locations, and this is now even easier with the wifi hotspot capacity from my phone.

In the last two organization-based positions, one employer did not see why a person would possibly want to work from home. I shared that I could get up in the morning, pull on running clothes, work hard till noon, go for a run, then clean up and finish the work day. The time not spent getting dressed until after I worked and exercised added to my productivity.

The other organizational workplace had a set day where all employees were on site for meetings and interactions, then had a schedule for when some teams were on site while the others telecommuted.
Because there is benefit to having face time and proximity, this seemed like a great solution.

What's been your experience? One question--have you been able to get a hotspot while riding Amtrack?

I Want to Be Like Carin Goldberg

   It's good to have people to admire: Descriptors and Thoughts from Carin Goldberg, Book-Designer

Wordle Based on"Hall of Femmes" entry by @Brainpickings

Twain on Plagiarism and If I Ever Get Sent to Hell

@brainpicker shared a letter from Mark Twain to Helen Keller on the subject of shared ideas and the subject of plagiarism. To quote her, she wrote, "If you read nothing else this week, make it Mark Twain's letter to Helen Keller on plagiarism:
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/05/10/mark-twain-helen-keller-plagiarism-originality/

And so I did. Because I figure if I ever get sent to Hell, it might well involve dealing with plagiarism in one form or another--which I here define as the use of others words and specific ideas without acknowledgement.  I spent years teaching research and writing in higher ed, worked in training units where we produced training materials, did a plagiarism webinar, wrote papers, worked to persuade other faculty into making first events teachable moments rather than range wars, and learning from a student who bought a paper that she because she bought it she could use it however she pleased--which was to submit it for a grade.

But back to Mark and Helen. In this letter, Twain declares that most everything in the human condition comes from our shared pool of ideas:

          "...and there is not a rag of originality about them anywhere except the discoloration they get his mental and moral calibre and his temperament, and which is revealed in characteristics of phrasing"

And it is the "characteristics of phrasing" that invokes the great plagiarism tempest--the fixed form the idea takes. Copyright law protects a persons right to make a living based on those fixed forms, and academics base their value on the contribution of both ideas and words (which is nicely acknowledged and shared via Creative Commons).

Twain was a man unafraid to wrangle with trying circumstances or recognize an albatross for what it was-- and at times teaching of appropriate acknowledgement certainly falls into either category. I agree with Twain the ideas we express very likely come from a long line of others' ideas. And I support saying where they come from, an idea which communicates our shared history.

LinkedIn and Slideshare

Just as the last post embedded a slideshare presentation, the news has broken: LinkedIn has acquired Slideshare and Twitter is hopping with the news: https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/linkedin%20%2B%20slideshare

And here's is LinkedIn's Cute (yes, Cute) Release using Slideshare

LinkedIn and Slideshare

Sharing Out My ELCC Presentation

The E-Learning Consortium of Colorado has been hosting a conference for over 20 years now, and it is a wonderful conference because it is truly a peer-led teaching and learning event.

Here's my presentation. Additionally related sites can be found at this Delicious link:
http://delicious.com/constantlearningorg/elcc2012

Start the Video