Meeting Notes for Emerging Tech Certificate

Topics Course: Second digit is a 4

With an AA the ETEC will transfer as credits.

16 credits

2-3 speech classes to AASC to Martha by Friday April 3rd noon.

Lisa, Michael and I will get together to discuss AASC forms and learning outcomes for the various courses that will come from the speech dept.

LOVE THE SHAPE COLLAGE

I created an assignment for my interpersonal communication class based on photos of different emotions. I added the pictures directly to D2L but also put them in my "From Reality Shows to Showing My Reality" blog in case others wanted to use them for their classes. So here's the direct link to that blog entry:

http://showingreality.blogspot.com/2009/03/emotion-collages.html

Thanks Shape Collage!

Elephant Videos from Thailand photos

Using an "iphoto slideshow" setting I was able to create a fun way to display photos. I used our group's photos of the elephants we saw in Thailand.

Here's my video:

A "related" video suggestion popped up when I played mine and it appears to be some of the same elephants from the Conservation Center we went to in Thailand. When we were there some of the elephants played a couple of instruments in the "show". It appears now, that the Center has a complete Orchestra. So here a link to the video if you'd like to see their progress:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1NpvHsxjgw&feature=related

Thai Food Collage

I used Shape Collage today for the first time. It was pretty quick and easy to downlaod and quick and easy to create a collage. I might try and use this for an emotion assignment in my interpersonal class. However, for the purposes of my trial I used food pictures from Thailand since that was the file I was working with earlier today. So below is my first attempt at a photo collage.

Music Video Idea for Class based on "World"

When requesting official permission to use Five for Fighting's "100 years" in my Windows and Mirrors music video on Guatemala, I discovered this interesting music video challenge. I think I might have to look at it more closely to see if I can't combine this with the service learning unit for my online classes. That could be very cool. Here's the site:

http://www.WhatKindOfWorldDoYouWant.com/

Minnesota Hunger Statistics

Website with statistics and information on Hunger in Minnesota (including food stamp use, increase of food shelf visits, "blueprint to end hunger", etc.) as generated by the US Dept of Agriculture

Site Link

http://hungersolutions.org

http://oyh.org

Flood Blog

Site to a blog dedicated to flood information for the Red River Valley.

http://www.areavoices.com/springflood/

Facebook Flood Call to Action

Here's an article about the power of facebook and it's immediacy in bringing people together. A call for volunteers to help with the sandbagging efforts in Fargo Moorhead was put out on facebook and within 24 hours 1,000 people had volunteered, within 48 hours they were at 2,000.

Here's the link to the amazing results of a facebook group:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/news_cut/archive/2009/03/facebooks_flood_fighters.shtml?refid=0

Class Resources from the Advocates for Human Rights

While exploring some of the websites posted by my fellow upcoming "unconference" attendees, I discovered the Advocates for Human Rights page. This site has a tremendous amount of information and resources for educators and for students as well as areas focused more on individual action under their advocates section. Main webaddress: http://discoverhumanrights.org/

There are "toolkits" for educators on the right to education, health, housing and food. There are also toolkits on the rights of migrants and the rights of women. One such toolkit I plan to use is the right to housing.

Under the Right to Housing. There is a national factsheet you can access or the following which includes information specific to Minnesota as well:
http://discoverhumanrights.org/sites/7cc8fb84-899d-457d-a486-470ccb03fb16/uploads/Housing_Fact_Sheet__Minnesota_Nov__1__2007.pdf

The fact sheet has some powerful statistics and nice definitions of what housing rights include and the current crisis of the homeless in Minnesota. The following are statistics are taken directly from the above site:

Black, American Indian and Hispanic people constitute 54% of Minnesota’s homeless population

In Minnesota, 32% of homeless women who were interviewed cited domestic abuse as one of their reasons for leaving their last
place of residence.

44% percent of homeless adults in Minnesota report at least one chronic health condition, 52% report suffering from serious mental illness, and 34% report alcohol or chemical dependency

On any given night, 9,200 people in Minnesota23 and 800,000 people nationwide are homeless

The home site also includes lesson plans, powerpoints, quizzes, and tips on how to take action.

On a personal note, one of the Advocates for Human Rights projects is to help run a school in Nepal. To help support that project the site offers a free kit for hosting a house party for the Nepal School. Which I am going to do.
http://www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org/Hosting_a_House_Party_for_the_Nepal_School.html

So as you can see, there is a lot of valuable information at this site. I hope you check it out.

Self-esteeem Resources

Found a self-esteem assessment that I might be able to use in Interpersonal Communication.

http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=720

I also explored another self esteem site that had some interesting resources like a free self-esteem worksheet, daily blog, quotes, affirmations, activities and short self-esteem quizzes. There were also some tips and resources on improving self-esteem. That site is:

http://www.selfesteem2go.com/index.html

Free music sites

Here's another music site that has a creative commons area with music that can be used for free as long as you:

"You can copy, distribute, advertise and play this album as long as you:

• Give credit to the artist

• Don't use this album for commercial purposes

• Don't alter, transform or build upon this album"

www.jamendo.com

Blog for Mass Comm

An interesting Mass Communication blog from an Instructor's perspective. Looks like a good resource:

http://www.kayesweetser.com/

Other Resource Sites

http://www.afirstlook.com/main.cfm/theory_resources/view_by_type

Meditation Resource Online

The following site is a resource for meditation which might be a good resource for my Intercultural Communication class:

http://www.meditationcenter.com/

Bliptv

At a recent elearning conference break out session, Barry Dahl (our elearning guru) recommended bliptv for uploading videos. He believes the quality is a little better than what you might get at youtube. I thought I might test this out by uploading some Guatemala videos to their site and comparing them to the Egypt ones I uploaded to youtube. As I was exploring the site here's a couple of notes I wanted to make:

1) Basic service is free

2) Pro Accounts are $8 per month with two free months if you pay for a year so 14 months for $96 (as of March 14, 2009)

3) You can NOT make your videos private unless you have a pro account.

4) Free archiving of videos forever, so they say, and...

5) They say they will never charge you for what you've uploaded for free already

Video Blogging

Claimed to be "everthing you need to get started videoblogging now", the following site might be worth checking out:

http://www.freevlog.org/

Working on Guatemala Videos

All right. So what have I been working on lately? Another batch of videos!! This time the videos are on my service learning trip to Guatemala from 2006. Even though I should know better, I underestimated how long editing would take. But I think I have the majority of them done, at least the raw footage part--meaning they're sitting on the computer as "completed projects". There might be some projects I will go back to and add some stills to and republish. There's also one specific music video that I need to finish. The videos are currently being made into movies (a step that happens after the "project" is finished and before they can be uploaded to youtube). So it feels good to have another group of videos almost done. The only problem is that the laptop keeps freezing up on me and I have to restart it (not common in macbooks I hear) so the process is taking even longer. And we're not even at the point of uploading to youtube--we're simply converting them to quicktime movies for streaming. So that's what I'm up to as we speak, or I guess I shoud say "as I type". Wish me luck!

Collage Shaper

Ok This looks really cool. Even better it appears to be free.

http://www.vincentcheung.ca/shapecollage/

Efolio Site

Another item that I've been working on is my personal efolio (electronic portfolio). Efolio is free to MnSCU students and faculty. Faculty can put together their portfolio using preset templates. This is a nice feature, however, I sometimes think having more flexibility to copy and paste from a word document would be more efficient than having to enter each item separately which uses a series of textbooks, tabs and buttons that need to be turned on in order to display. Overall, the completed work is time intensive but seems worth it. I would still like to add some photos and additional links (but was having issues with google docs changing my margins and spacing so had to give up temporarily). Here it is:

www.carolfrisch.efoliomn2.com

You can sign up for you efolio site by going to: www.efoliomn.com

Post Racial Society?

OK I lied. I keep finding resources from the RETHINKING SCHOOLS ONLINE site. Here's another one on whether or not (author implies not) we are in a post-racial society. The article is in response to comments made after Barack Obama's win as President of the United States. It has some great statistics on some underrepresented groups. Here's the link:

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/23_02/race232.shtml

Gender Enculturation Resource

I'm still exploring the site Rethinking Schools Online. I thought I'd note one more resource there...an article on "Marketing American Girlhood":

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/23_02/amer232.shtml

This one would be good for a class in gender studies, intercultural communication, history, and marketing to name a few.

Other Assignment Ideas from Rethinking Schools Online

A poem that seems to have the possibility to be used in several disciplines is one that was brought up at the site Rethinking Schools Online is titled "The Prison Cell" by Marhmoud Darwish. It can be accessed at:

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/23_02/cell232.shtml

They also have a corresponding set of questions for the classroom at:

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/23_02/cell232.shtml

If you're an English teacher you could do a compare and contrast between "The Prison Cell" and Don Quixote or a theatre production of "The Man of Lamancha".

I plan to use it with my unit on oppression.

Middle East Map Game

A friend sent me this link:

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html

At this site you are asked to match country names with their proper location on the map. This particular map is focused around the middle east. You drag a name and drop it over the outlined spot on the map. It will let you know immediately if you are incorrect. Then you can choose another name and drop it over its correct location. However, it does not give you a score at the end nor does it have a time limit.

Personally, I found the exercise quite humbling and repeated the game over and over until I felt I understood the geography by both name and by location. It was a good resource and will be using it in some of my classes.