Tag: technology

Tech Blog: Field Recording with Lavalier (TRRS) Microphones

by Dec 19, 2016

Field Recording Tools: Based on A True Story It came to our attention recently that some faculty would like to record interviews with colleagues to include in their courses, a practice we highly encourage. As professional practitioners you have access to experts and colleagues with all types of experience who can add real world context and value to your course content simply by sharing a story. One such faculty was travelling on business and scheduled a meeting with a colleague who volunteered to give some real world context to important lessons in their course. As the meeting was somewhat impromptu,

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Web 2.0 Digital Tools Selection Criteria

by Nov 11, 2016

As an Instructional Technologist, receiving a daily barrage of emails from education tech companies is the norm. Each email offers a set of digital tools promising to “improve” the way our faculty deliver their content and “boost” our students’ learning outcomes to new heights. With each new day, there’s an opportunity to discover new tools and figure out whether these companies are really trying, or totally lying. One type of instructional technology that is specifically important to the School of Professional Studies is online presentation tools, and our biggest challenge comes when we try to introduce new tools into the

Is Technology Driving Online Education Off A Cliff?

by Oct 31, 2016

Is technology driving online education off a cliff? At the School of Professional Studies’ annual Distance Learning Symposium, David Noffs and I raised this question. As instructors and designers of new online courses in the Instructional Design Sequence in the Information Design Strategy (IDS) Program, David and I argued that thoughtful integration of educational technologies into education and training programs is important in designing high quality online learning experiences and modeling sound instructional design strategies for students in the program.  Here is a brief recap of some highlights of the presentation. Is Education Really Just A Game? Why not make

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What’s New in Canvas? – October 2016

by Oct 24, 2016

Both Instructure (Canvas’ parent company) and Northwestern Information Technology are always making changes and improvements to Canvas – sometimes it can be hard to keep up! Keep reading to learn about some of the biggest and best new things in Canvas. Northwestern’s Learning App Store Northwestern Information Technology has launched the Learning App Store, an easy way to add learning apps developed at Northwestern to your Canvas course site. Currently, four apps are available in the Learning App Store: Nebula, Discussion Analytics, YellowDig Viz, and UDOIT, with more on the way! Nebula Since Nebula was first launched, it’s become much

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Behind the Scenes of a DL Video

by Aug 22, 2016

While you can use a variety of tools to produce an instructional video, a video with high production value still takes some careful planning and expert use of advanced production equipment. A recent video production in Abbott Hall required an alternative setting to the DL Studio, and since one of our conference rooms was recently upgraded with echo dampening acoustic panels it made for the perfect location to set up a temporary studio environment. The value of video for establishing instructor presence and to increase student learning by balancing cognitive load through delivery of information across forms of media is well

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