Posters and Slides from the 2011 Blackboard World Conference

At the Blackboard World conference in July 2011, several of the e-Learning Center’s staff, along with other Northern Arizona University colleagues, gave poster sessions or presentations that were well received and generated a lot of interest among conference attendees. By request, we’re making the posters available in a downloadable size (17 x 11 inches, .pdf). [...]

On the Horizon

by John Doherty and Lorraine B. Elder The annual Horizon Report, published by the New Media Consortium (NMC), describes educational technologies that are ripe for adoption in the coming year, the next 2 to 3 years, and 4 to 5 years out. The 2011 Horizon Report is now out. The full report (.pdf) is available [...]

Rethinking Your Course with Student Learning in Mind

by Dr. Sue Pieper, Coordinator of Assessment It’s official! During this year, Northern Arizona University will be moving to a new learning management system, Blackboard Learn. As you move your courses to the new system or use the new system for the first time, take advantage of the opportunity to rethink your courses, adjusting them as needed to incorporate [...]

Pedagogy and the iPad

by John J. Doherty and Kevin Ketchner Perhaps the hardest part of owning an iPad is trying to avoid the addictive world of Angry Birds, the favorite game app of the new British Prime Minister. For just $5 you, too, can attack pigs with hard-headed flying birds. That kind of distraction is exactly what many [...]

Twitter Spreads Wildfire News Like, Well, Wildfire

by Lorraine B. Elder Some people still think of Twitter as a tool for sending out 140-character messages about trivia such as what you ate for lunch, but during Flagstaff’s wildfire crisis, Twitter turned out to be one of the best sources for up-to-date information on the Hardy Fire (282 acres with 95% containment as I [...]

The Times (and LMS) They Are A-Changin’

by Larry MacPhee By the end of this year, the Provost’s Academic Computing Advisory Committee (PACAC), with input from the NAU community, will select a new learning management system (LMS) to replace Blackboard Vista, our current LMS. Vista has been in service about five years, which is a pretty good run in the fast-changing world of [...]

Pedagogy and Large Course Redesign

By John J. Doherty and Wally Nolan Instructional Designers,  e-Learning Center at Northern Arizona University In this semester’s episodes of our podcast series, Tuesday Tips on Teaching With Technology (iTunes U link), we are highlighting some discussions from the recent Course Redesign Conference held at NAU. With our faculty colleague, Dr. Brandon Cruickshank of the [...]

A Tweet a Day Keeps the Swine Flu Away

by Lorraine B. Elder Okay, Twitter is not really the new Tamiflu, but educational technology and social media are useful tools in combating the effects of sweeping illness. The World Health Organization has declared a flu pandemic, meaning widespread human H1N1 infection is occurring. Many colleges are bracing for large numbers of flu-related absences among staff [...]