Wednesday, September 18, 2019

TechEDGE Un-Conference, October 19, 2019

We want to invite you to the Innovative Educator Un-Conference the morning of Saturday, October 19 at the UNL Hub in Henzlik Hall from 8:30 AM until noon. Come ready to participate in a technology playground project as you consider how such experiences could be integrated into your curriculum. Meet educators who are implementing innovative practices in their own schools and learn how they did it. And have conversations around topics you would like to consider in your own school. Learn more about UNL’s Innovative Educator Workshops you may want to join next summer. The Un-Conference is free, but you do need to register by October 1 to allow us to plan. We hope to see you there!  Register Here

For more than two years we have been collaborating with a Think Tank of innovators to meet the needs of innovative schools. We focused on preparing educators to be effective and confident in facilitating learning in innovative settings. School leaders have indicated a challenge in finding and retaining effective educators in innovative settings, whether project-based learning, virtual, hybrid, outdoor, or international. We created an Innovative Educator curriculum to supplement traditional teacher education. These courses support innovative schools by developing educators who can facilitate learning in a variety of settings using inquiry, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration.
We offered these courses for the first time this past summer.

At the Un-Conference you will be able to meet some of the educators who participated in this program. Hear about the innovative practices they are implementing in their schools, and most importantly the processes they are using to make it happen. If you are thinking about updating your curriculum to be more student-centered while implementing technology to empower your students to demonstrate learning, consider attending this event. There will also be time to discuss and share ideas with other innovative educators in attendance. To quote Don Leu of the University of Connecticut, because of the incredibly rapid advancements in technology and learning, "no one person can be expected to know everything there is about the technologies of literacy; these technologies will simply change too quickly and be too extensive to permit any single person to be literate in them all. Each of us, however, will know something useful to others. (Leu, 2002, p. 328)
Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

Schedule 
8:30 Registration and Refreshments
8:45-9:30 micro:bits project-based learning
9:30-10:15 Panel of Innovative Educators sharing what they are doing and how they got there
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:10 Mini Un Conference Round 1  
11:10-11:45 Mini Un Conference Round 2
11:45-12:00 Closing Thoughts and Door Prizes!
The conference is free so please consider coming to share what you know that will be useful to others. We hope to see you at the Un-Conference on October 19 at Henzlik Hall! We can't wait to hear how you are considering or already innovating at your school!

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education

girl wearing grey long-sleeved shirt using MacBook Pro on brown wooden table
Unsplash.com photo credit
Universities today need to make learning accessible for all types of learners. Technology tools can help personalize information by allowing students to access course content in a manner that meets their needs. For students with disabilities, technology can support reading and writing using print and digital materials. In Google Docs, Voice Typing allows students to verbally state their ideas while the tool types it out. For a struggling writer this method helps get their good ideas on paper without struggling with the actual keyboarding or handwriting. It also fills the daunting empty page as one begins an assignment.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act require public colleges that receive federal funds to transcribe materials for students who need this assistance. Today YouTube provides transcription on many videos that instructors may use for Open Educational Resources. This service saves many working hours to manually transcribe materials. Voice to text tools also write transcriptions as a person reads the materials. The result is more students who succeed in college and graduate ready to assume positions in society.

University students frequently work to help pay for college so time is a premium, so listening to readings while commuting is more efficient. Also some come to college as slow or struggling readers so having text read to them can make the difference between understanding and not reading the assigned text. While there are many free text to speech tools for educators, one tool that I like to include in my syllabus for students is the website Natural Readers. This tool allows the student to cut and paste text, or simply open documents including PDFs, docs, epubs, PPTs, and jpegs and have them read orally. It can even transpose the text into Dyslexic Font to assist dyslexic students. As with all digital text, you can also adjust the size of font by zooming in or out on your screen to assist those with vision challenges, adjust loudness for hearing challenges, and adjust speed to increase comprehension.

Photo by Patricia Prudente on Unsplash

At a time when recruiting and retaining students can be a challenge for universities and completing college work is for students, technology is providing personalized learning tools to make all students successful at learning. If you have other tools that you use with your students, please share them.
All the best as you plan your courses to meet individual needs in the most effective manner possible.