The Catch: Issue #4

What’s Happening in Technology-Enabled Learning

The Cutting/Trailing Edge

It’s high time that we went full-on cutting edge technology here in the Cutting/Trailing Edge section. Now, keep in mind that some of us may or may not have any idea what you can even do with these things, but there is no doubt that they are intriguing. There’s also no doubt that they are freely available to you as they’re openly licensed (CC-BY) for you to take and reuse. You just have to give attribution.

What are we even writing about? Good question! Free 3D Objects! Available here: at Google’s Poly.  What might you do with these? Who knows? Maybe you could use them as characters in an online course. Maybe you are developing a virtual world and need some furniture for your moon condo. Maybe even some moon roommates. Who’s to say?

Jason Lamb at McMaster probably knows what to do with these. We should have asked him before publishing this. Let us know how you might use these things. Especially you, Jason. We’re dying to find out: thecatch@www.ecampusontario.ca

Trickle Up

This section offers some trickling up of information. In other words, we share stories and ideas about what students are doing, what they can do, and what they want to do with their technology-enabled learning.

The eCampusOntario Student-Experience Design (SXD) Lab is an incubator to support student-led innovation for online and technology-enabled learning. The SXD Lab is running a full-day Co-Design Studio on day 2 of T.E.S.S. (November 21) where we are building on the success of the initial SXD studio in January 2017. The goal is to bring together students, faculty, instructional designers, learning technologists, administrators and the SXD Lab Strategic Foresight (Lab Advisory Group) team to tackle this design challenge:

“How might we collectively advance innovation in student experience design (SXD) to support purposeful learning for a meaningful life? “

Behind the Content

Recently, eCampusOntario’s own Jenni Hayman and Joanne Kehoe presented workshops at McMaster University’s Learning Technologies Symposium. And here’s a chance to pass on the resources ‘behind the content’ that they created, co-created and shared with participants. Take a peek, ponder and pass ’em on!

Remixing OER w/Jenni Hayman

• Presentation Link
• Peggy’s Creative Commons Matching Game
• How to Attribute Creative Commons
• Starting List of Repositories

Design Thinking for Tech Integration w/Joanne Kehoe

• Presentation Link
• EdTech Tools to Try
• Spin the EdTech Tool Wheel of Wonder
• Tools and Solving Learning Challenges Generated by Participants

Now and Next

As part of eCampusOntario’s TESS (Technology Enabled Seminar and Showcase) activities, a top secret group of Canadian History educators, an open librarian, a graphic designer, and three instructional designers will lock themselves into a room for two days to develop open resources that complement John Douglas Belshaw’s Canadian History: Pre– and Post-Confederation open textbooks. Our common goal is to build small-scale resources that energize learning about Canadian history, and make it easier for educators to adopt the textbooks in their courses.

Watch for the big reveal Tuesday, November 21 at 1:30pm!

Open Treasure

On October the 25^th, 2017, untold numbers of Open Education Ontario Rangers descended upon the McLaughlin Library at The University of Guelph to ‘sprint’ the development of an Open Education advocacy toolkit. By ‘untold numbers’ we mean that we did not actually take a count. There were, like, 20 or so people though. It was great. If you just said to yourself “Well, what was so great about it?” then you’re in luck, because we are going to provide you with a link to a place that tells you all about it and gives you all the stuff. See? Already it’s great.

Have a look at this more in depth write up to see those details. Skip the first paragraph when you get there, though. We may have done some copy/pasting.

Adoption Announcements

The aforementioned Canadian History: Pre-Confederation open textbook by John Belshaw has been adopted into the McMaster classroom of Phil Van Huizen. And also Tom Peace’s at Western. And also Stacy Nation-Knapper’s back at McMaster! How is this strange adoption situation possible? Well, unlike regular old human children, these textbooks are very easily cloned and sent to different families. Each student in these courses can even clone it for themselves, saving $100 in the process.

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In this section we will feature projects that are in development, so that we can all get a sneak peek at what’s coming down the pipeline. Recently, eCampusOntario was able to put out a call for proposals to fund the development of a whole whack of Open Textbooks. The successful proposals are now either cooking in the oven or under construction, depending on which analogy you prefer.

One such project in development is called The Indigenous Historical Significance of the Lands Encompassing the District of Greater Sudbury. It is being developed at Laurentian University by a team including project lead Susan Manitowabi, Director of the School of Indigenous Relations. The textbook will document the Indigenous contributions to Greater Sudbury beginning with gathering Indigenous stories and their significance within the Greater Sudbury area. This e-textbook will provide the foundation to learn about the impacts of colonial policies on the Anishinaabek of this area and how understanding this colonial history can aid in the movement towards reconciliation. The e-textbook will also provide a foundation for Indigenous/non-Indigenous people to learn about and understand the cultural teaching, healing practices, and ways of knowing and being, thereby creating a space for reconciliation to occur. This e-textbook is about ‘re-righting’ the history from an Indigenous perspective. It is about creating a new beginning in Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations and a ‘re-storying’ of that colonial history as a step towards reconciliation.

We greatly look forward to seeing the project unfold and releasing it for all to reap the benefits of the work Susan’s team is putting into this project. Look for it in eCampusOntario’s Open Textbook Library! The project’s scheduled end date is March 31st, 2018.

Email thecatch@www.ecampusontario.ca if you want to contribute ideas future issues of The Catch.