Archive for category work
DLC Workshop: “Voice, Audio, & Story.” A MIIS Radio Live Broadcast with Barbara Ganley and Friends
Nov 8
WHEN: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 1:30 – 4:00pm (open to all MIIS community – no tech required!) WHERE: Digital Learning Commons Design Space (MG 001 @ 420 Calle Principal) WHAT: With an emphasis on understanding the deep complexity of the … Continue reading
Technology fits when education is the right shape. Let’s play with shapes! *Bring your own laptop or tablet* to this minds-on workshop designed to model a possible next-gen learning environment using wet and dry tech. Using the Question Formulation Technique, Design Thinking … Continue reading
The Staff Advisory is pleased to share an overview from Eva Giedt’s Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction series offered this Spring. Scroll through the content or download for your reference.
Join us for a symposium celebrating foreign language education! March 10, 2012 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on campus at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
The Celebrating Foreign Language Education: A Monterey Bay Symposium is a celebratory symposium about foreign language education, focusing on teachers and TFL/EFL students in the Monterey Bay area. We will feature events with a strong applied/practical and theoretical base. Our presentations, workshops, and poster sessions will center on classroom implementation, methods and principles, pedagogical innovations, and they will also allow for participants to use the knowledge gained in their programs and classrooms. The following topics will be covered:
- Content-Based Instruction
- Emerging Technologies
- Content, Tasks, and Projects
- Alternative Assessment
- Awareness Raising (Cultural, Language, etc.)
- Learner Autonomy
- Developing Core Cultural Competence
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Leo van Lier
As we power up the Spring 2012 academic term, your friends in the ITS Help Desk and the Digital Learning Commons have some useful reminders and updates about iLearn course management services and support.
Logging In
The campus supported course management system, iLearn, is available at: http://ilearn.miis.edu.
- iLearn user accounts are activated by logging in. Use your current Middlebury email account username (everything before @miis.edu) and password to log in.
- If you are having trouble logging in, re-activate your account by visiting http://go.miis.edu/activate
Course Archives Policy
- All iLearn Moodle course sites are backed up and archived for two years beyond the semester of instruction.
- Fall 2012 courses will continue to be archived on ilearn.miis.edu. Summer and Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 courses will be officially and archived some time in May or June 2012
- Spring 2011 courses are archived at ay1011.ilearn.miis.edu, where “ay” stands for academic year.
- Pre-Spring 2011 Courses continue to be archived on our old server eLearning.miis.edu
Course Rollover Requests
- Faculty who wish to import an archived course from an archive of a previous academic term should complete the Course Rollover Request Form. Look for the yellow call out bubble on the main iLearn page. Requests will be processed by the ITS Help Desk. Please allow at least 3 working days for processing.
- Please allow at least 3 working days for processing.
Accessing Your Spring 2012 iLearn Course Shell(s)
To gain editing privileges to an iLearn course shell:
- New faculty – be sure to Login to iLearn at http://ilearn.miis.edu to activate your profile.
- New and Returning faculty – Email the Help Desk helpdesk@miis.edu with the course name and names of any other instructors who need access.
iLearn Help & How To
- Schedule an iLearn Orietnation or Refresher Session: If you are new to campus or are feeling a little rusty with iLearn, contact Bob Cole [bob dot cole at miis.edu] at the Digital Learning Commons to schedule a one-on-one or small group training session.
- Knowledge Base: Common Moodle questions and answers can be found in the Knowledge Base “KB”: http://blogs.miis.edu/kb/tag/
moodle/ - Help Forum: Have a quick question? Post it in the iLearn User-to-User Forum on iLearn. Your questions make the community smarter!
- Just in Time Video Training: We have access to a great new resource called Lynda.com which includes video-based tutorials for software ranging from iMovie to Excel to Moodle. Login with your Middlebury webmail credentials here to explore further: http://go.miis.
edu/lynda
The Staff Advisory Team is pleased to announce a 3-session mindfulness-based stress reduction training series starting in January 2012. The series will be facilitated by Eva Giedt, a nationally board certified psychotherapist/mental health nurse practitioner in private practice in Monterey. Eva provides wellness programs for Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital and Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula. Also, she is now a psychotherapy provider under the Wellness Corp. insurance plan for MIIS employees.
You do not need to attend all sessions. You can RSVP for one of the sessions in the series or all-three.
Benefits of Attending
- New insights and strategies for keeping those stress-reducing resolutions thriving well into the New Year and beyond
- Box Lunch with your colleagues sponsored by the Staff Advisory Team
- Attend at least 2 of the 3 sessions and gain preferred access to bonus alumni sessions which include day-long silent retreats facilitated by Eva
Session 1: Introduction to Mindfulness to reduce stress. Awareness of breath and awareness of body sensations practices. THIS SESSION IS AT CAPACITY! RSVP to Waitlist
Mindfulness is well documented to reduce the symptoms of stress. This 1 hour session will introduce mindfulness and give participants a brief experience of mindfulness using awareness of breath and body sensation.
Date: Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Time: 12:15 – 1:30pm
Location: MCGOWAN 100 (capacity 45) *NEW LOCATION!
Session 2: Mindful Living Practices including mindfulness at work and mindful eating THIS SESSION IS AT CAPACITY! RSVP to Waitlist
Bringing mindfulness into our daily lives is rewarding. In this 1 hour session, participants will learn simple mindfulness practices for the workplace and home settings including mindful eating.
Date: Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Time: 12:15-1:30pm
Location: Casa Fuente 452 (capacity 36)
Session 3: Mindfulness in relationships. Conscious communication THIS SESSION IS AT CAPACITY! RSVP to Waitlist
Mindfulness can improve our relationships by helping us to be more present, empathetic, and free of reactivity. In this 1 hour session participants will experience a meditation to help bring mindfulness into your relationships.
Date: Thursday, March 15, 2012
Time: 12:15-1:30pm
Location: Casa Fuente 452 (capacity 36)
Contact Eva Giedt
Eva’s Website: http://www.evagiedt.com/
Contact Infor: evag97@aol.com or 831-236-7110
You’re also invited to register for Community Hospital’s 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction workshop series starting on Jan. 26.
MIIS Discount for Monterey’s Ice Skating by the Bay!
MIIS faculty and students will receive a 50% discount all next week, Monday – Thursday, December 12-15, 2011 from 11:00am – 4:30pm.
Skate rentals are $3.00/pair. Adults are normally $12.00, and kids $10.
You must show a valid school ID to receive the discount.
In addition to next week’s special offer, Ice Skating by the Bay will extend the discount to MIIS ID holders every Tuesday anytime of day.
Check them out on Facebook for more information.
Bring your mobile device! We’re meeting upstairs in Kade from 4-5pm, Tuesday, October 18.
Special Guests this month:
Mitch Winick, President of the Monterey College of Law and Elizabeth Xyr, Monterey College of Law Program Director for the iPad program will talk about the College’s all iPad program. Learn more about the pilot program at the Monterey College of Law.
The Mobile Learning Work Group is an informal gathering of MIIS community members interested in exploring how mobile tech is changing the way that we work, teach, and learn through regular open sessions and idea sharing among MIIS faculty, staff, and students and our colleagues and peers in similar professional contexts. The Work Group plans to use the Digital Learning Commons as meeting space for an on-going conversation about mobile tools and document happenings through the DLC blog.
Mark your calendar! The group meets the third Tuesday of every month – next meeting is November 15, 2011.
You’re Invited to the Staff and Faculty Halloween Party!
Join the Staff Advisory Team for a fearfully fun party on Halloween! The event will feature tasty treats, a best costume contest, and other ghoulish games.
Come dressed in your Halloween best and mingle with your fellow ghouls and ghosts.
Date: Monday, October 31st
Time: 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
Location: President’s Residence, 530 West Franklin St.
Please let us know if you’re coming by Monday, October 24th using the form below:
Our third open meeting (third Tuesday of every month at 4pm) was another great conversation about how mobile technologies are influencing (or not) the way we work, teach, and learn.
Mark your calendar as our next meeting is Tuesday, October 18, at 4:00 pm. For that meeting we have invited special guest Mitch Winnick, President and Dean of the Monterey College of Law, which recently went all iPad. Read up on their pilot program here.
In attendance this month were: Navindra Gunawardena (IPS/NPTS), Sarah Springer (DLC/CALL), Mike Garnett (ESL), Adrienne Stacy (ESL), Jennifer Grode (ESL), Gus Leonard (Special Guest from CSUMB), Christopher Hurtado (NPTS), Bob Cole (DLC), Patricia Szasz (ESL), Katie Dutcher (ESL).
Gus Leonard talks about AirSketch
We invited special guest, Gus Leonard the Language Lab Coordinator from CSUMB, to come and share with us his experience with mobile tools in language learning. He had some interesting insights about the administration of multiple iPads and their respective “apps,” specifically mentioning issues involved in buying multiple copies of apps. Apple does have a program to buy apps and give codes out, a system for managing licenses for apps for multiple iPads and this may be a solution for ESL at MIIS. Gus suggested that we follow up with Apple’s regional sales representative, Dane Riley, to learn more. Gus also suggested that administrators managing larger number of iPads (20 or more) be aware that there is special education pricing available for bulk purchase of app licenses. Not all developers are aware of this, so it’s always good to ask about discount pricing.
Gus mentioned that one of his favorite apps is AirSketch, a screen sharing app that allows the user to wirelessly project a document via IP address to another computer. The app conveniently works with Dropbox to open files. It runs for $9.99.
When asked about the use of mobile tech for teaching at CSUMB, Gus mentioned that there are about twenty-five iPads in circulation for faculty to experiment with and for student to rent through CSUMB’s TechRent store. Clickers and classroom texting have become popular in the sciences for on the fly surveys and polls.
He also noted that the Japanese program at CSUMB has been using a predecessor of the smartphone and tablet called the iPaq PDA. These have been popular for learning characters, for dialogues (listening and recording). If funding can be secured the language labs will likely move to iPads, though they would hold off for the 3rd generation models which may be coming out later this year.
App Sharing in Context
The group can’t help but mix in references to apps that have really made a difference in daily work habits. Thanks to Katie we have also assembled a public spreadsheet listing apps that we have talked about. You can review that spreadsheet and contribute to it as well. In addition here’s a rough list of some of the ones that were mentioned:
Always popular are Apps that allow users to read and annotate PDF files including:
- Neu.annotate Free
- Noterize Free
- iAnnotate $9.99
Our friends from the Intensive ESL program also reported experimenting with a number of different apps as part of their new student orientation activities. These included:
- iCard Sort as a interactive approach to breaking the ice
- EverNote to collaborate with groups on docs…possibility of adding photos
And as conversations go this led to some ssharing of apps for brainstorming and collaborating in the cloud such as:
- StickyBoard (a possible alternative to iCard Sort)
- iThoughts for mind-mapping (recommended by Navindra $9.99)
- Christopher uses MindMeister and it works on the web, too and for sharing, but others can’t edit
Lastly, there was some discussion of mobile access to websites. Gus mentioned that CSUMB has a mobile friendly version of its website viewable at m.csumb.edu, and Middlebury recently announced its new mobile gateway available here portal.middlebury.edu. MIIS will also has a mobile friendly version of its site in the works!
And finally a few random notes…
- iPad2 works better than iPad 1 with projections, but still some complications…some apps do not work
- Patricia shared how iPads are changing music class. She’s a member of a local choir that has also gone mobile, providing rehearsal agendas and schedules with an app called Music Stand (Free) which allows her to annotate her part and follow along with the music director electronically. Pretty cool!
- Mike took the prize for fun app to share with MadPad ($0.99) which allows you to record sound and video snippets to create an interactive beatbox remixer. Check this demo video out and you’ll see why we thought this was a fun app: