Clickers in the Classroom

Turning Technologies is the manufacturer of Turning Point and the personal response system (clicker) in use at Widener Law.  These portable clicker systems are easily set up and used on any computer that has the Turning Technology software installed (all classroom computers and office computers by request).  Pass a clicker out to each student in class, open the program and your presentation, and pose your question.   Once students answer the question using the ‘clicker’  a chart with the class responses appears on the screen.  Faculty use the clickers to help students recognize assumptions about various topics and then compare those assumptions to their understanding of the same issues after learning about the topic.  Clickers can be used to establish whether a class understands a certain concept before moving on, and can help quickly determine  the direction you might want to go next after obtaining audience feedback.

Clickers are a great way to dispose of simple questions or ideas, and you can either plan ahead which questions to pose (using PowerPoint), or easily pose questions on the fly (using Anywhere Polling).  Clicker technology also provides a means for saving and evaluating the data collected.

Detailed instructions for how to get started using clickers is available here, Create a Clicker Slideshow, or from the Instructional Tools menu above under Assessment Tools and from the Documentation menu.

As of Fall 2015, Delaware Law is using version 4.9. Please verify your version before creating your presentation to make sure that it is created with the latest version of the software.  Contact ITS to have your office software upgraded.

Scheduling Meetings with Doodle

Use Doodle to schedule meetings and stop sorting through email after email trying to figure out when your group can get together.  Doddle helps you simplify scheduling.

Go to doodle.com and either create an account or not, it is not required.

“Doodle is an online scheduling tool that can be used quickly and easily to find a date and time to meet with multiple people.  First you suggest dates and times for your event participants to choose from, then Doodle creates a polling calendar that can be sent to participants for feedback.  As each participant selects the dates and times from the polling calendar that he or she is free, Doodle aggregates the responses and tells you which option works best for everyone.

Getting everyone on the same page is hard enough with just five other coworkers, let alone fifty new volunteers you may have never met.  Doodle can be a valuable tool for coordinating a large event like volunteer training as well as a small event like a monthly meeting with the board.” (from Doodle’s web site)

There are four basic steps to creating a doodle poll.

  1. Schedule an Event
  2. Propose Times
  3. Choose Settings
  4. Invite Participants (via email)
  5. Invited guests then follow the link you sent and sign up for the date that is best.

You can then log in and see everyone’s response, all on one page, and Doodle will even tell you which time got the most ‘votes’.

For more information and specific instructions on how to create a Doodle, go to the Doodle support center here.

Digital Measures New User Interface Fall 2015

Digital Measures has updated the user interface in the database as of August 2015.  While the new interface is designed to be more intuitive and user friendly by reducing the number of clicks that we make to add/edit or update our entries, it is nice to have a chance to see what they have done.  Digital Measures has posted a very good guided tour of their new interface and I recommend that everyone take a look at their earliest convenience.

Panopto upgrades for the fall 2015 semester

Panopto has made a series of upgrades to the recording software that we use on campus.  Before using Panopto this year, please make sure you upgrade the recorder on your office or home computer.  All faculty are able to download the recorder to their office and home computer to use at their convenience. All classroom computers will have the newest version of Panopto installed.

Some of the new features you will find in Panopto include a sliding bar to adjust volume for the microphone right on the side of the video window.  You are also able now to choose to record in MP4 format directly, if desired.  In addition Panopto has included keyboard shortcuts for starting/stopping and pausing the recording.  This new version also has numerous under the hood improvements to the reliability and performance aspects of the program.  Panopto will prompt you to update your version of the recorder if it determines that your software is out of date.  The current version of the recorder that we are now using is 4.9.

As always I am available to help you with your recordings, along with editing them and helping you add links to quizzes and making them available to your class or other group.  Please give me a call at 302-477-2118 or email me at blmindell@widener.edu so that I can show you some of the interesting ways you can use Panopto.

In addition, in the documentation section of this site you will find a number of step by step instructions for using Panopto.

Panopto Upgrade Update

Panopto was successfully upgraded on November 22, 2014. The new upgrade does not require that you download a new recorder, but we recommend that you go ahead and do this as the new version has a few features that we want to take advantage of, in addition to providing various bug fixes and updates. For instructions on downloading the recorder, see the Panopto Quick Start Guide .

The updated version of Panopto no longer requires Silverlight. Panopto is now taking advantage of HTML 5 and Flash for video streaming. For more information on Panopto see the Panopto support website at support.panopto.com/47faq .

Windows XP and Vista are no longer supported.

I have noticed some clear speed updates, and you now get upload and encoding information without having to refresh your browser.  In addition, it is now recording in 16×9 format, which looks very good.

Let us know if you have any questions or concerns with the new version.

Panopto Upgrade November 22

There will be an upgrade to Panopto on Saturday, November 22. This may take most of the evening and you will want to plan with this in mind. The following is what Panopto has said:

  • Panopto hosted servers will be down on Saturday, November 22, at 8:00pm EDT for up to 3 hours. We expect only a short interruption for finding and viewing sessions during this time, with a longer interruption for processing new sessions.
  • Recorder clients will still be able to record offline and upload later, but there may be brief delays before the recordings are available for viewing.
  • Your Windows clients, Mac clients, and remote recorders will not be required to      upgrade.
  • We will be sending a separate email next week with more information about some of the upcoming changes.

No action should be necessary after the upgrade, but there will be a new recorder available for download. Please check back to see what benefits will be available after the upgrade is completed.

Digital Measures Database (access and instructions)

Accessing the Digital Measures Database

Over the summer instructions were sent to all faculty showing everyone how to access and use the Digital Measures database.  The information in that email is posted on the right, titled “Digital Measures Activity Insight Database”, dated 5.20.14 under Recent Posts.

I want to remind everyone here how to access both the Digital Measures website, and this documentation website as well. I post links to all documentation that I create and provide information about changes and new ideas about using technology on a regular basis here, so I am hopeful that you will come back to this site to find out how to do things, or to see what is going on.  We hope this will be a location where you can get information on a regular basis that will be helpful to you.

To access the digital measures site directly: (all addresses lead to the same location)

Documentation for using Digital Measures is located in the Documentation portion of the Educational Technology website, under Communication, or can be accessed here: Getting Started Guide to Digital Measures . This documentation has been recently updated (10.2.14) to include instructions for how to use the reporting features in the Digital Measures database.

Accessing the Educational Technology Documentation and Training Website

You can access this website three ways:

When prompted, the password for this site is widenerlaw. Once you enter the password, your browser will likely remember it, but if you switch computers or browsers, or shut down your computer, you will need to enter the password again the next time you access this site.

Welcome Back – Classroom Updates Fall 2014

Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful and productive summer.

We have made some significant changes to the technologies in the classrooms for fall 2014 and I wanted to give you a rundown of the changes now so that you won’t be caught off guard when you are in the classroom.  Below I have listed some of the major changes.  You can see the changes and detailed instructions for how to use all the classroom technologies in the updated and revised Classroom Technology Guide.  If you click on the link to Documentation in the menu above, you can also find separate detailed step-by-step instructions for each of the technologies that we have available for you.  When you click on the link to the documentation titles, it will open up a pdf, which you can then save to your computer for quick reference. Copies of the printed technology guide are available in each classroom.

*New Touch Screen Display Panels*

On the lecterns we now have a touch screen display panel to select among the components in the classroom.  When you touch the screen, it automatically turns on the projector and the television screens and selects the classroom computer.  When the computer is booted up, the display will be projected on those devices.

*Intercom System* 

We have installed an intercom system in each classroom.  They are attached to the left side of the lectern in all classrooms except 126 where it is at the back of the lectern.

The first button on the intercom will connect you with an AV staff member.  We have arranged that someone will be available at all times when classes are in session.  This will provide the ability to have a two way conversion so that you can get immediate assistance, or request that someone come down and assist.  The last button will connect you with Campus Safety in case of emergency.

**The intercom system is still being configured and tested and is not yet activated, but will be soon.  We will let you know when it is available**

*ELMO Document Camera*

All classrooms have new ELMO document cameras.  These cameras have much better lenses and it is easy to adjust the brightness so that there is no glare on the page or object you want to display.  They work easily with the Smart Board tools, so if you want to annotate an object or text using the camera, this is very doable.  These cameras also have a microphone built in, which means that every classroom now has a camera and mic that can be used for SKYPE or Panopto without having to bring in any additional equipment.

*Laptop Connection*

There is a new cable cubby on each podium, where there is a VGA cable, HDMI cable, Ethernet cable, audio cable, and power receptacle.  This makes it easy to connect your laptop right on the podium without having to bring in extension cords or other devices to connect your laptop to the classroom system.

These changes were dictated by the need to upgrade the wiring and electronic components in each of the classrooms, which has been completed.  In addition to bringing the classrooms up to current standards, these changes have allowed us to make some improvements in the systems we have available to you.

The training and practice room also has been configured with the same upgrades as the rest of the classrooms, so this is a perfect location to try out all of these new systems to make sure you are comfortable with the changes.

Let me know if you would like to use the practice room, or would like some assistance using any of the equipment or discussing how technology can help you in your teaching. The Delaware training and practice room is along the hallway behind Special Collections.

Some of the things we have been doing with faculty this year include:

•             Using Panopto for lecture capture, makeup classes or to create short video clips for ‘flipping’

•             Using Skype for video conferencing or for special guest speakers

•             Using Adobe Connect for video conferencing or small group meetings

•             Creating online self-graded TWEN quizzes (with or without Panopto video or audio commentary)

I am available to provide individual training and assistance at your convenience.  Stop by my office in the library or contact me at blmindell@widener.edu t: 302-477-2118. I look forward to working with you this year.

Have a great semester!

Digital Measures Activity Insight Database

Hello Everyone:

We are pleased to announce the roll out of our new database product, Digital Measures Activity Insight.  With Digital Measures, all of our data about Delaware faculty teaching, scholarship, and service will be available in one centralized comprehensive and easily accessible database.  The implementation of this system will improve our ability to keep track of and report faculty activities for both internal and external purposes, including the publicizing of faculty accomplishments.

We have begun the process of populating the database. Where possible, we have entered your information that was available to us.  We used faculty resumes, publications (as listed on Bepress), and institutional data that we were able to obtain (courses and biographical information).   Now, we need you to verify and change anything that is not correct, and add information that we were unable to obtain. Please follow the directions here for accessing, verifying and supplementing your data.  WE ARE ASKING YOU TO PLEASE COMPLETE ENTERING YOUR DATA BY AUGUST 20TH (the first day of fall classes).  While this project will take an initial investment of time over the summer, in the future, if you continue to supplement your information in real time, the time commitment should be minimal.

Many, many thanks to Michael Slinger and especially Barbara Mindell who together did all of the heavy lifting on this quite complicated project!

Thank you very much for your help.

Andy

Andrew Strauss
Associate Dean for Faculty and Strategic Initiatives
Widener University School of Law
Wilmington, DE 19803

Harrisburg Room Renovations

Patricia Fox, Brian Fearnbaugh, and Bob Dolbin recently led efforts to renovate three rooms on the Harrisburg campus.  The Flex Room is located in the library building to the left of the campus safety desk.  This room is outfitted with updated technology, including: two 58” LED televisions, a PolyCom system with a ceiling microphone, a Teamwork system, Smart Podium and a touchscreen Extron.

Image of flex roomA Room Roster device is located outside of the Flex Room, which allows people to easily view the room’s availability for the week. Image of room rosterAdditionally, there are now two collaboration study rooms available in the main part of the library.  Each study room is equipped with a 42” TV and a Teamwork system.  Once a laptop or other device is connected, simply click the Show Me button to project the chosen screen on the TV.

                Image of six person collaboration study room Image of four person collaboration study room

Contact the Harrisburg library at (717) 541-3933 if you want to reserve any of these rooms!