ICON News

Organizers of the first-ever 4CAST conference are labeling the event a huge success.

A joint effort by the Center for Teaching, University of Iowa Libraries, and ITS, the daylong conference on Jan. 17 was attended by 88 faculty and staff from all over campus.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Social Networking – Opportunities and Impact on Teaching and Learning.” Participants identified ways in which social networking tools are impacting teaching, ways in which instructors can leverage these emerging technologies to engage students in and out of the classroom, and areas that will require additional support at The University of Iowa as the use of these technologies increases.

Conference organizers plan to make 4CAST an annual event.

Please visit the following website for more information: http://at.its.uiowa.edu/4cast/

The January NExTT Workshops took place Jan. 8-11, 2008. NExTT stands for “New Experiences with Teaching Technology.” Sessions included an ICON Overview, Communication Tools, Grades, Content, Learning Objects Repository, Quizzes, Rubrics & Competencies, and Advanced Homepages. In addition, sessions on Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Media in ICON were offered. Some of the Instructional Services staff also presented on what the group is about, the mission of the group, and detailed ways in which each subgroup (Instructional Design, Digital Media Solutions, Learning Spaces Solutions, and the SITA program) could assist faculty and staff. Almost all sessions were registered to capacity and were a mix of faculty and staff.

As a result of faculty and staff feedback, ICON sessions will continue to be offered, but other application program sessions may be expanded to include more advanced sessions. As always, the Instructional Services team looks for ideas and suggestions about improving our training program. If you have ideas, please contact one of us and share it. Our goal is to perform training based on faculty and staff needs. With your input, we can accomplish this goal in helping you expand your instructional technology skills.

The first 4CAST conference will be hosted by ITS, The Center for Teaching and The University Libraries on Jan. 17 from 8:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the University Conference Center seminar room (UCC 2520D). Plans are to make this an annual event.

This year’s program will explore the impact of social networking on teaching and learning. Iowa faculty members who use blogs, podcasting, wikis, Second Life, etc., will showcase their efforts. The day will include small-group roundtable discussion, posters and “hands-on” breakout sessions.

UPDATE: The 4CAST 2008 workshop is currently full. To be included on the waiting list, please click here.

The next session of New Experiences with Teaching Technology (NExTT) is Jan. 8-11.

NExTT is a four-day series of workshops held in January and August for instructors and instructional support staff. Topics for the January session include ICON orientation, content, grades, rubrics and competencies, home pages, quizzes, and the Learning Object Repository (LOR). We’ll also conduct sessions on PowerPoint for ICON and the web, Dreamweaver, image editing, and media in ICON, and offer a tour of the Digital Media Studio. Participants can register for only those sessions they wish to attend.

For more information and registration, click here.

Desire2Learn, the e-learning software behind ICON, has recently made available version 8.2.

Version 8.2 brings with it significant interface changes, and the equally significant training and documentation requirements that go along with those changes. So, in order to determine campus demand for the improvements that come with the upgrade, the ICON team turned to the ICON Advisory Team and the Collegiate Administrators. These groups are made up of faculty and staff from all colleges and similar units on campus. Based on feedback from these beta testers, the ICON team has decided to upgrade to version 8.2 for the summer 2008 session.

However, because some users found very valuable improvements in version 8.2 over the current version, the ICON team will be opening a pilot test, in which interested instructors can run spring 2008 courses in version 8.2. This will help identify issues and gauge the value of the planned summer 2008 upgrade. For more information, contact icon@uiowa.edu.

Representatives from Desire2Learn, the e-learning software behind ICON, were on campus Nov. 29 for an all-day meeting with ICON staff.Present from D2L were Dana Frigula, current UI account manager; James McCulloch, transitioning account manager; and Kenneth Chapman, lead of product development. Present from the University of Iowa were representatives from the College of Medicine, College of Public Health, College of Dentistry, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Pharmacy, UIHC, and Division of Continuing Education, as well as ITS staff from CTS and SPA.Topics of discussion included future product developments, Application-Programmer Interfaces (APIs) and vendor integrations, and the client/vendor relationship. All meetings were held in the UCC Conference Center. Please contact icon@uiowa.edu if you are interested in a more detailed discussion of the day’s events.

Eight ITS staff members attended EDUCAUSE 2007 in Seattle Oct. 22-26. The eight were Romy Bolton, Steve Fleagle, Jim Fluck, Maggie Jesse, Mark Katsouros, Boyd Knosp, Molly Langstaff and Tracy Scott. Also in attendance from Iowa were Aletia Morgan (CLAS IT) and Jim Chaffee and Scott Fuller (Stead Technology Services Group).

ITS staff were well represented in the presentations made at the conference:

• Mark Katsouros co-taught the pre-conference seminar: “I’m Building a Converged Network: Now How Do I Leverage Free Services?”
• Molly Langstaff co-taught the pre-conference seminar: “Strategic Planning in Higher Education Environments”
• Maggie Jesse made presentations on the UI D2L selection process and the ICON implementation at the D2L exhibit
• Boyd Knosp co-wrote a paper titled Defining Cyberinfrastructure for Campus Leaders that was presented at the Campus Cyberinfrastructure Working Group session at the conference

On 7-8 August, ICON will be down for a scheduled upgrade. More details can be found here.

NExTT standsfor “New Experiences with Teaching Technology.” This week-long series of workshops is held in the spring and fall prior to the semester start for instructors and instructional support staff. Participants can choose to register for only those sessions they wish to attend. Session topics include ICON, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, presentation best practices, etc.

Registration can be done online. A registration form and schedule will be linked on the main ITS home page around the second week of July. Spaces for the workshop are filled on a “first come, first serve” basis. We make every attempt to get everyone into a their desired sessions, but our spaces are limited. We ask that you let us know if you cannot attend a session for which you signed up so that it is available for someone else.

The Frequently Asked Questions section on the ICON support site has been improved. Most noticeable is the creation of separate FAQ sections for instructors/designers and students. This allows greater focus for each group. Check them out.