We’ve had a lot of exciting things going on in the world of CUNE instructional technology. First and foremost, we purchased WebEx. What an amazing tool for both faculty and staff! All CUNE employees should now have access to WebEx, allowing you to virtually meet with one or more individuals using audio and/or video. You can also share your desktop, transfer files, share presentations, take control of someone else’s computer, collaborate via a whiteboard, and more. This semester, I will be using WebEx in my Empowering Teachers as Leaders course to present a panel of teacher leaders from across the U.S. I’ll also use it to meet virtually with students since they are in Omaha. Finally, I’ll use it to offer optional WordPress Q & A sessions since they will be using WordPress to create an online action research portfolio.
Speaking of WordPress, this is another tool that you now have at your disposal! While WordPress.com has always been free to use, we now have it installed at Concordia, so faculty, staff, and students can create an account using their CUNE username and password. WordPress is the tool that was used to create this site (which I will soon be exporting to our CUNE WordPress, so stay tuned for a new address). For faculty, this means that you can easily create your own blog or professional portfolio, and you could have your students do the same. As I mentioned earlier, my students will be using it to create an action research portfolio, with a page for their research journal, research question, literature review, data collection tools, etc. WordPress is available for faculty and staff at wp.cune.edu and for students at wp.cune.org. We plan to discuss WordPress in more detail at a future faculty seminar and, of course, training will be offered.
Finally, our last new and exciting tool is Blackboard 9.1. Yes, it’s here! No, you don’t have to use it yet. I will be taking the next couple of weeks to familiarize myself with it, and I will then offer training sessions to prepare you to use it in the spring.
As for other trainings, we have offered six introductory WebEx sessions with great participation. For those of you who missed these, click here for the recorded version. Self-paced tutorials can be found by logging into your account at cune.webex.com and clicking on “Training.” I will periodically offer this training again; however, our next round of WebEx sessions will focus on Training Center, which is a step up from Meeting Center, allowing you to do breakout sessions and other advanced things. Stay tuned for these.
