Author Archives: Nancy.Wozniak@stonybrook.edu

About Nancy.Wozniak@stonybrook.edu

My passion is the Science of Learning and the desire to design lifelong, integrative learning habitats for ALL learners.

6 New Facts About Facebook

New Pew Research Center survey findings show how people are using Facebook and what they like and dislike about the site.  Find out who’s using Facebook and who’s not.

Facebook Facts

Find out more.  See the article and research at  – http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/02/03/6-new-facts-about-facebook  What are your thoughts?  How do you use Facebook?  Also, what about Facebook in education.  Does Facebook have a place in the classroom?

Performance Funding Making Its Way into Higher Education

Very interesting and compelling research and presentation by AACU (American Association of Colleges and Universities), Loyola, and Taskstream looking at what employers and legislators (funding) are demanding from Higher Education in preparing students to become innovative, productive, contributing members of society.  Legislators are sending the funding message to Higher Education, “If you want more money, prove you deserve it.”  They’re frustrated about completions, transfers, and students taking over six years to graduate.

Employers expect students to

  • complete a significant project before graduation that demonstrates their depth of knowledge in their major AND their acquisition of analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills
  • complete an internship or community-based field project to connect classroom learning with real-world experiences
  • work through ethical issues and debates to form their own judgments about the issues at stake.

They want to be assured that students develop the skills to research questions in their field and develop evidence-based analyses.  They want proof.

The Loyola ePortfolio Continuum (developmental, scaffolded, and progressive build) is presented with the AACU’s LEAP Program’s High Impact Practices and the Value rubrics.  The Loyola model begins with eportfolios started in the University 101 gateway courses and continues with Service Learning and Internships to the capstone Career ePortfolio.  Please review.  I was impressed right from the start with Loyola’s Motto –  Preparing people to lead extraordinary lives.

This is a compelling study and presentation that all educators (faculty, staff, and administration) need to consider and ask the question, “Are we preparing our students to lead extraordinary lives?”

STIMULATING INNOVATION WITH E-PORTFOLIOS
http://www.umkc.edu/provost/facet/Eportfolios01-31-13.pdf

  • Dr. Terrel Rhodes, Vice President, Office of Quality, Curriculum, and Assessment
    Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) rhodes@aacu.org
  • Dr. Patrick Green, Director, Center for Experiential Learning
    Loyola University Chicago pgreen@luc.edu
  • Ashley Kehoe, E-Portfolio Program Manager Loyola University Chicago akehoe@luc.edu
  • Taskstream, events@taskstream.

Find more information on the AACU study and ensuring employer involvement program at  https://you.stonybrook.edu/eportfolioconsultants/2014/01/17/do-employers-value-eportfolios  

IT TAKES MORE THAN A MAJOREmployer Priorities for College Learning and Student Success
An Online Survey Among Employers Conducted On Behalf Of:
The Association Of American Colleges And Universities
By Hart Research Associates
April 10, 2013

We encourage your thoughts, suggestions, and opinions on this topic.  Please post your reply.  If you have more resources to contribute, post them in a reply.  This is an important topic and your participation is important.

 

Missing Visual Editor

I was able to restore my missing visual editor and kitchen sink!  How?  I read the directions…novel idea, eh?  – http://help.edublogs.org/2013/02/28/missing-visual-editor.  In your profile, there is a check box that allows you to disable the visual text editor when writing.  Mine was checked and the Visual button and Kitchen Sink disappeared.  Fortunately, I know HTML, but writing in code breaks the fluidity of blogging.  Got everything back, including the kitchen sink by following the instructions (DAH!) and clearing the checked disable box.   The Edublog Help and Support site is excellent.   It’s easy to find solutions to questions and problems with your blog.  Training folks, no need to reinvent the wheel … it’s all there.  The layout and visual organization of the site make it easy to find your answer and get back to blogging.  Before calling Rich, try the site  – http://help.edublogs.org.  Blog on, Stony Brook.

Do Employers Value ePortfolios?

Recently, we received a post in our Linkedin Spotlights on ePortfolios group from a curmudgeon boldly stating that employers do NOT look at the eportfolios of job applicants. Employers are busy and don’t have time for such worthless compilations of junk. There is no evidence or research that show employers look at eportfolios. He wanted to know why we were wasting his time by creating such a worthless group. I never answered the troll. However, there is research out that employers do value the eportfolios submitted by job candidates. Take a look at the AACU’s survey and report, It Takes More than a Major: Employer Priorities for College Learning and Student Success at http://www.aacu.org/leap/presidentstrust/compact/2013SurveySummary.cfm

E-portfolios and Partnerships to Ensure College Graduates’ Successful Transition to the Workplace
•In addition to a resume or college transcript, more than 4 in 5 employers say an electronic portfolio would be useful to them in ensuring that job applicants have the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in their company or organization.
•Business and non-profit leaders are highly interested in partnering with colleges and universities to provide more hands-on learning opportunities and to help college students successfully make the transition from college into the workplace.
(It Takes More than a Major: Employer Priorities for College Learning and Student Success Summary, AACU, 2013)

Employers not only encourage students to create and use eportfolios in the application process, but want to partner with colleges and universities and provide hands-on professional experiences for students to ensure they make a successful transition into the workforce.  The full report can be found at
http://www.aacu.org/leap/documents/2013_EmployerSurvey.pdf

See the 2010 Survey – “Raising the Bar: Employers’  Views on College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn” (Hart  Research Associates and AAC&U, January, 2010)

ENSUING PROGRAM

Liberal Education and  America’s Promise (LEAP) is a national advocacy, campus action, and  research initiative that champions the importance of a twenty-first century  liberal education—for individuals and for a nation dependent on economic  creativity and democratic vitality  – http://www.aacu.org/leap/presidentstrust/compact/factsheet.cfm

We all have experienced eportfolio curmudgeons. Let’s tune them out and focus on the Bright Spots. We are Team ePortfolio and we are helping our students “CHANGE THE WORLD!”  The ePortfolio Learning Process takes non experiential activities and make them experiencial, while proceeding to the next level of inquiry and discovery.

For more on this subject, go to the blog post on Performance Funding Makes It’s Way Into Higher Education –  https://you.stonybrook.edu/eportfolioconsultants/2014/02/06/performancefunding

AACU Logo

American Association of Colleges and Universities

List your favorite blogs

Blogs come in all shapes and sizes with varied formats, designs and topics. Some are reflective narratives and showcase personal interests and updates. Others center around news and information, business, academics, careers, arts, research, health … you name it. If there’s something to communicate, blogging is the popular way to do it. My British husband gave blogging one of his coveted Bloody Hells and commented, “This is the people’s media. Everyone’s an author. Bloody Hell.” He’s not going to blog or comment, but he reads the blogs and comments of others. My 86 year old mother comments on blogs and is starting her own on Genetically Modified Foods (GMO). She’s obsessed over getting information out on the dangers of GMOs. I introduced her to blogging. I’ve created a monster. Seriously, she now has a forum to voice her outrage over the chemicals used to produce our foods. Blogs are hot. Let’s list our favorite blogs. Include title, author, url, and topic. Keep it going. This will be the blog post that never ends.

Here are some of mine.

Turn to Your Neighbor. The Official Peer Instruction Blog.
Dr. Eric Mazur, Author and Physics Professor at Havard
http://blog.peerinstruction.net
Education

A Daily Dose of Architecture
Dr. Jonathan (John Hill), Author and Professor of Architecture at Bartlett College, London
http://archidose.blogspot.com
check out his Archidose FB page, also.
Modern and Contemporary Architecture

How We Learning: Research and Perspectives
http://how-we-learn.blogspot.com
Phillip Bell, Associate Professor of Learning Sciences, University of Washington
Education

Mind/Shift: How we Learn
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift
KQED and NPR, Tina Barseghian
Education

EmergingEdTech
http://www.emergingedtech.com
K Walsh
Educational Technologies

Fact Tank
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank
Pew Research

These are blogs I check regularly. There are others. Looking over my list, I never realized how much my blogs describe me. I’ll let Nicole and Linda list our CIO’s blog in their post.

I’m anxious to view your favorite blogs. Looking forward to your reply.

Cheers,

Nancy

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Team ePortfolio Blog Power!

Greetings Team ePortfolio!

Welcome to our Brainstormers Blog.  We will use this on a daily basis to communicate our activities, projects, ideas, suggestions, and general chatter.  Each one of you will maintain a personal blog/ blogs and promote this with faculty and students.  The blogs can be used for many different purposes.  We want to brainstorm and research uses in the classroom and with clubs/organizations.  Also, we need to outline the difference between an eportfolio and a blog.  HINT:  a blog can be a component of an eportfolio.  Though this system could be used as a personal eportfolio, we need to keep the integrative eportfolios on Digication.  Why?  Remember the assessment back end of Digication. The two systems and formats can be married. How?  Here are your assignments over break:

  1. Start you own blog.  Google examples of other Edublogs.  I have a Edublog at http://eportfoliopractice.edublogs.org .  I haven’t been updating it.  This system (you.stonybrook.edu) belongs to Stony Brook, but doesn’t reside on a campus computer. It’s Cloud.
  2. We need to gather help instructions.  Go to http://help.edublogs.org .  How can we personalize this information?
  3. Start posting blogs and reply to one another.  I want you to check the blog daily during the week.  Look at the Categories and Tags.  Make sure you assign your posts to a category and/or tag.  BTW, Yo Gabba is our relaxed chat. Nicole, you’re in charge of the Yo Gabba page.
  4. Start brainstorming ways to promote the blogs.

You all are administrators.  Start designing and learning the navigation of our Team ePortfolio site. We’re in the pilot stages with the system. Recruit others to start their own blog, but make sure they understand the system is in the developmental stages. They can be part of the pilot.

WARNING: The following is an experiment on pasting embedding code on posts You’ll be learning HTML. Here’s the link – http://youtu.be/sLSpXaokFkc Let’s see if it works.

Working theme song of Team ePortfolio!
It worked!
Questions …. Thoughts …. Comments …. Ideas! Let’s BLOG! Go Gabba Gabba!

Find this blog in the education blogs directory