An Essay on Technology in the Classroom:  
Are You Willing to Be Blissfully Out of Date?

Bob Jensen at Trinity University

The Essay Request

My Essay

In what ways should course content, materials, and teaching style be modified for online learning?

Differences between "popular teacher"
versus "master teacher"
versus "mastery learning"
versus "master educator"

Resources

Facing Up to Multivariate Data  

Replays from Daring Educators on the Leading Edge of Education Technologies  

Wonderfully Said  

1998 New Faculty Consortium Slides by W. Steve Albrecht

A Message from Tom Omer About Helping Colleagues

My March 17, 2000 Letter to The Wall Street Journal

Onsite versus Online Universities in the 21st Century

How To and How Not to Deliver Distance Education 
War stories from teachers in the first accredited online MBA program

Assessment Issues --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm

Essay Request

Message from Professor Griffin on March 14, 2000

Bob
 I am the chair of the new faculty handbook committee (T&C section, AAA) and am following up on a suggestion made by Kathy Sinning, one of the committee members. She indicated you might be willing to provide an essay on using technology in the classroom. Is this something you might consider? If it would be helpful to you, I could provide you with copies of the material we have to date for the handout or simply a copy of the table of contents. I look forward to hearing from you. If you have questions, let me know. Lynn

Lynn Griffin Department of Accounting School of Business North Carolina A&T State University Greensboro, NC 27411 336-334-7581 ext. 6008

---

Bob Jensen's Essay for the American Accounting Association's New Faculty Handbook

Important Questions With Frustrating Answers 

• Will my use of educational technologies improve performance of my students and make them better prepared to be life long learners?
  Answer:  Maybe it will and maybe it won't!
  
  
• Will my use of educational technologies free up significant amounts of my time for my other responsibilities such as research and publication?
  Answer:  Maybe, but probably not.  Most likely it will significantly reduce the time you have for those other activities.
  
  
• Will my use of educational technologies lead to rewards in terms of performance raises and summer grants?
  Answer:  Maybe it will, and maybe it won't..  Unlike the situation in industry, reward structures for technology skills tend not to be in place in most universities (although starting salaries tend to be higher for applicants with certain technology skills such as e-Commerce and information technology skills that are in short supply in industry and academe.)
  
  
• What is the most frustrating aspect of modern technology?  
  Answer:  The pace of change in scholarship that we should be teaching.  In the past, scholarly publications came out at discrete points in time such as every three months.  If we put learning materials on library reserve at the beginning of the semester, the materials probably were relevant for the entire semester.  Now thousands upon thousands of scholarly publications are put on the web every day.  There are search engines to help us and electronic media to signal what appears where, but each morning we awaken to a whirling blizzard of new happenings in our discipline.  Many papers, especially those of Bob Jensen, are subject to change at any time.  What you printed yesterday may be changed if and when you assign it for your students to read.  Unless we accept being stamped "blissfully out of date," we will perpetually live at a pace that ruins our fingernails, harms our families, impairs our diets with fast foods, reduces friendships to email messages, creates encounters as fleeting as passing trains, and bewilders our students because what we taught last week is out of date this week.  
  
  For example, this semester I spent a goodly part of the summer preparing web documents on FAS 133 (hedge accounting) only to awaken in mid-semester to the  FASB Exposure Draft of proposed FAS 133 amendments.  The standard is "possibly" going to be amended prior to the date when FAS 133 is slated to go into effect.  On top of that, there are almost daily happenings that affect FAS 133, most notably the pronouncements of the FASB's Derivatives Implementation Group.
  
  
• Should I avoid educational technologies other than those that are relatively simple to use such as PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheet presentations, and e-mail messaging with students?
  Answer:  Not unless you are over sixty years old and counting the days until you retire.  The pace of scholarship on the web and around the web is just happening too fast for any educator who is not willing to be "blissfully out of date."

Educational Technologies That Will Not Be Focused On in This Essay

It is assumed that virtually all accounting educators make use of presentation software (often PowerPoint), email, and spreadsheet software (usually Excel).  These are outside the focus of this essay except to recommend that presentation software, as well as lecturing in general,  be used sparingly in class.  If students have five courses in a day and all five instructors flash repeated PowerPoint screens in front of them, the students are brain dead by the end of the day.  Classtime should keep students active as much as possible with case discussions, student presentations, team tasks, etc.  Use of e-mail with students is recommended unless the demands on the instructor's time become onerous.

This essay will not focus upon courses that never meet synchronously (at regular class times) or only meet a few times a semester.  Courses that are virtually asynchronous require education technologies.  My discussion of asynchronous education can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm.

Examples of Educational Technologies That Will  Be Focused On in This Essay

Although I will not address each of the topics below in any kind of detail, it may be useful to note that I am referring in this paper to the following types of technologies:

• Hypertext and hypermedia learning materials available to students from the instructor's website and/or the websites of others that are used in the course.  For example, students in my ACCT 5342 Accounting Information Systems course ( http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/#Courses ) have an online textbook and must take online quizzes graded online by the  publisher.  The online book is called Accounting Information Systems from Cybertext Publishing and can be examined at http://www.cybertext.com/.  I also prepared a great deal of my own hypertext and hypermedia materials.  For an illustration, see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133glosf.htm.
  
  
• Requirements for students to publish their own projects, papers, and even assignment answers at their own websites.  Having their work made available to other students and the public at large creates incentives for them to do higher quality work than is the case when only instructors and teaching assistants have access to their work.  Advantages of this are nicely explained in the audio files at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ideasmes.htm#Christian.
  
  
• Textbooks and textbook supplements that are available on media other than the web (e.g., CD-ROM supplements from publishing firms).  These used to be pretty bad, but some of the latest supplements are quite good.
  
  
• Simulations and games that through the use of computing and networking technologies have become more realistic and interactive.  Excellent examples of networked educational simulations can be found at http://www.smartsims.com/.  You can build your entire courses around such simulations.
  
  
• Chat room software that allows students to meet at the same time (synchronously) to discuss issues either via e-mail chat room software or audio/video chat room software.  Sometimes this software can even be used to conduct a class.  An example of a video/audio/email chat room course is the international accounting course taught by Sharon Lightner and professors from four other countries simultaneously on four campuses in Switzerland, Spain, Hong Kong, and the U.S.  There were originally six participating colleges, but at last count there were four colleges participating in Dr. Lightner's course.  See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255light.htm.
  
  
• Interactions of faculty, students, and external experts.  The international accounting course coordinated by Sharon Lightner that is mentioned above has standard setters from each nation, at least one accounting professor from each nation, and a leading accounting practitioner from each nation all interacting in the virtual classes.
  
  
• Courses that make extensive use of web materials, especially web databases such as the SEC's EDGAR and financial market data web sites.  I teach in a classroom where each student is seated at a computer.  With the click of a button, I can show what is on any student's screen.  Students can show the class what they have found and explain why this finding is important.
  
  
• Courses that combine synchronous classes with asynchronous learning. For example, Barry Rice teaches elementary accounting in one synchronous class each week, plus he uses extensive web and video materials for asynchronous learning of basic accounting outside the classroom at Loyola College in Maryland. Accounting educators may obtain a free CD-ROM from the American Accounting Association developed by the AAA and AICPA called "Technology•Accounting•Education•Practice: A Showcase of Successful Ideas." Dr. Rice’s teaching methods and materials are demonstrated on that CD-ROM along with other approaches taken by six other professors around the U.S. See http://www.aaahq.org/showcase/  .
  
  
• Courses that allow students to experiment with learning technologies and, possibly, take control of a course.  What might happen if you let your students take over your course?  This is what James Anderson tried in a basic communications course at the University of Utah.  You can read more about his experiment in Syllabus, March 2000, pp. 32-33.  The online version of the March edition of Syllabus is not yet available online, but will soon be posted to http://www.syllabus.com/.  Professor Andersen's contact information is at http://www.hum.utah.edu/communication/general/faculty/anderson.html. 
  
  
• Internship courses may be effectively managed with newer technologies.  The Health Care Management Program at Towson State University has a good website for managing students on internships.  The website is at http://www.towson.edu/hcmn/.  Most of the information is password protected.  However, you can learn more about this program in Syllabus, March 2000, pp. 28-29.  The online version of the March edition of Syllabus is not yet available online, but will soon be posted to http://www.syllabus.com/.

Examples of what accounting professors can and are doing with educational technologies can be found in the Accounting Coursepage Exchange (ACE) program sponsored by the American Accounting Association.  See http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/teach.htm 

The American Accounting Association has some great Faculty Development helpers at http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/facdev.htm.  For example, you can read about both submissions and winners of the prestigious Innovation in Accounting Education awards.

Will educational technologies improve the performance of students and make them better prepared to be life long learners?

I don't think that there is any doubt that accounting students must learn more than ever about information technologies and the web.  Business reporting is going to change dramatically with web reporting.  It is vital that all accounting faculty and students become familiar with the IASC research report on this topic at http://www.iasc.org.uk/frame/cen3_26.htm 

In the short run, we will see rapid changes in university curricula to adjust to powerful student demands for e-Commerce. This complicated aspect of commerce is a high priority in business education.  There are new e-Business and e-Commerce sections being formed at the AACSB --- see http://www.aacsb.edu/e-business/index.html. 

My bottom line prediction is that education of the future will focus on development and use of knowledge bases. My analogy here is a comparison of a Model T Ford with an F-17 airplane. At age 14, my father could tear apart every component of a Model T, jerry-rig some of the parts in a barn, and have the car up an running in no time. Educators of the past prided themselves on being integrative scholars who could recite the major knowledge of many disciplines and produce a graduate who knew an amazing amount about a lot of things such as history, economics, psychology, literature, music, mathematics, statistics, etc.

When confronted with an F-17, however, an expert mechanic hardly knows where to begin. It takes a huge team of very highly skilled specialists to tackle an F-17, and that team may not be able to fix all of the 50 computers aboard a single aircraft. The knowledge base of virtually every discipline is becoming so immense that the way in which scholars approached issues in the 20th Century will change radically in the 21st Century. Future scholars will not necessarily be narrowly-focused specialists, but they will be adept at using technologies to integrate stored knowledge bases and attempt to creatively add to both the specialized components of knowledge and the integration of knowledge. The goal of education does not change dramatically over time, but the process will change radically. Learned teams will replace learned individuals. Learning will take place in real time at any place rather than in discrete time periods in classrooms.

Finally on the wild side we have a book entitled the "Brave New World: the Evolution of Mind in the Twenty-first Century," by Ray Kurzweil --- http://www.kurzweiltech.com/WIRED/. He forecasts that before Year 2050, we will be able to inject nanobots in our blood stream that will contain knowledge bases that attached to parts of our brain. How wonderful it would be if we could inject "FAS 133 Tutorial" with a needle and then know all about this standard without having to read or sweat. I will leave it up to you as to how futuristic you want to take this investigation of knowledge in a needle. 

There is that nagging issue of what the accounting profession will become.  Issues of auditor independence are enormous.  But the profession must not follow the way of the railroads who never looked beyond transporting across iron rails.  The railroads viewed  themselves as "rail roads" rather than transportation companies.  They missed their opportunities to expand into airline and communication ventures.  The accounting profession is at a similar juncture.  If public accounting moves backwards from its new ventures, it stands the risk of being a system of regulated "rail roads" rather than a relevant and viable profession in the 21st Century.  My latest website on this issue is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/cpaaway.htm.

Be that as it may, there is still the question of what technologies you use in your classes and how much you and your students rely upon such technologies.  It is possible to conclude with a sigh that adapting to newer technologies is just not for you and your courses.  Familiar reasons or excuses include the following:

• My university does not provide me with the training and funding needed to learn these technologies, design my courses around these technologies, and prepare hypertext/hypermedia materials for servers.
  
  
• My university does not reward such efforts on the same basis as research and publication in traditional journals.
  
  
• If I get high student evaluations using my old teaching style, it is very possible that changing my ways could jeopardize those evaluations.
  
  
• Many of the daring professors who experimented in learning technologies have burned out from the stress and work (see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ideasmes.htm ).
  
  
• Some of my students are whiz kids in computing and networking.  If I am constantly having to ask them for help, it does not seem right to continue calling me the "teacher."
  
  
• You will find many more frustrations and anxieties mentioned in "Whatever Happened to Instructional Technology?" at http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/scale/links/library/geoghegan/wpi.html.

In spite of the numerous excuses and reasons why instructors may resist using technologies other than PowerPoint and e-mail, my advice to you is think of what is best for your students.  Wouldn't it be awful if the only writing students did in college was in English composition courses?  It would be terrible if the only time they made an oral presentation was in a speech class.  The best universities have students writing and speaking in virtually all courses.  The same should be true of computing and networking technologies.  These skills and resources should be used in virtually all courses.

One of the most frequently asked questions asked in my education technology workshops is as follows:  
In what ways should course content, materials, and teaching style  be modified for online learning?"

My quick and dirty response is that faculty who develop content should learn how to use FrontPage or some other good HTML editor and then learn how to screen capture and video capture themselves rather than relying upon technicians.  You can learn FrontPage, Paint Shop Pro screen capturing, and Camtasia video capturing in just a few days with a little help from your friends.  With a little added effort, you can make your online course materials more interactive by saving Excel worksheets as interactive Webpages and by learning how to use JavaScript.  You can learn all of these things in less than a week with a little help from your friends.

1. Use more screen captures, audio captures, and video captures of things that you normally demo in lecture presentations.   Look under "Resources" below.
   
   
2. Audio capturing is especially important since you can let students hear what you like to say in lectures or case discussions.  For example, in an Excel spreadsheet you can add buttons to that students can click on to hear your explanation of what is going on in various cells of the spreadsheet.
   
   
3. Flesh in PowerPoint, Excel, or other presentations with video and audio.  Camtasia works great for both capturing dynamic computer screen presentations in video accompanied by your audio explanations.  Your video files may take up more space that you are allowed on your Web server.  However, you can save them to CD-R or CD-RW disks that can be sold to students for around $1.00 per disk. You can learn more about Camtasia from http://www.techsmith.com/ .  You can make CDs by simply dragging files to a blank CD using Windows Explorer if you first install Easy CD (http://www.roxio.com/en/products/ecdc/ ).  For video illustrations, see  http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm 
   
   
4. Try to make your online materials more interactive by saving Excel workbooks as interactive Webpages and use of JavaScipt.  See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm .  For illustrations on publishing Excel workbooks as Webpages, see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/dhtml/excel01.htm 
   
   
5. Make a lot more use of online questions and answers that replace the question and answer type of style that you probably use in lectures.  Amy Dunbar uses this approach extensively.  See You can read about how she developed her first online course at www.sba.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/genesis_of_an_online_course.pdf 

One of the fastest growing segments of the communication industry is the area of Instant Messaging, where people can set up "buddy lists" on their computer and have real time text conversations with friends or colleagues. The problem until now has been how to capture the corporate benefits of Instant Messaging without spending the resources to ensure the security of the communication. Enter Microsoft. http://www.accountingweb.com/item/97256 

You can listen to Amy Dunbar discuss the use of instant messaging in her distance education tax courses at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm#2002 

You can read about video and audio capturing at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm

How can you capture and send streaming media?

Answer --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#StreamingMedia

April 30, 2004 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu] 

"How do instructors learn to teach online? What are their perceptions as they enter this new learning environment for the first time?" To find out, Dianne Conrad, assistant professor of adult education at the University of New Brunswick, interviewed five instructors in a Canadian university who were teaching online courses for the first time. Her interviews showed that the instructors drew upon their fact-to-face teaching experience, but that they "revealed very little awareness of issues of collaborative learning, of learners' social presence, or of the role of community in online learning environments." The details of Conrad's qualitative study are available in "University Instructors' Reflections on Their First Online Teaching Experiences" (JOURNAL OF ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING NETWORKS, vol. 8, issue 2, April 2004) at http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v8n2/v8n2_conrad.asp.

The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN) [ISSN 1092-8235] is an electronic publication of The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C). Current and back issues are available at http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/.

For an account of online teaching from a veteran instructor, see "Less is More: Designing an Online Course" (DEOSNEWS, vol. 13, issue 4, April 2004; http://www.ed.psu.edu/acsde/deos/deosnews/deosnews.asp) by R. Thomas Berner, professor emeritus of journalism and American studies at the Pennsylvania State University

YourLearning.com --- http://www.yourlearning.com/churchillreport.html 

The report may be beneficial for individuals who are involved in online learning developments in healthcare education in the USA and other countries. The institutions visited during the fellowship may find it useful to read own and others case studies, to compare and reflect on the developments and implications on teaching and learning in healthcare. The report may be useful for other institutions in the USA, to add to the picture of diversity in online learning developments within USA. .

How one business educator (in Organization and Management) more than doubled her salary by staying home.  She does not worry about tenure, but the work is very tedious and time-consuming.

"For Online Adjuncts, a Seller's Market Part-time professors, in demand, fill many distance-education faculties,"  by Dan Carnevale, The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 30, 2004, pp. A31-A32.

Ruth Achterhof won't say how many courses she teaches, for fear that her employers will think the workload is too much for her to handle.

But the work is enough to earn her about $90,000 per year, she says.

"I'm afraid my schools will go, 'Holy smoke!  How does she do that?'"

Because she does all of her teaching on-line, Ms. Achterhof can handle many more courses, at many more colleges, than she could face to face.  She is an adjunct professor of business and management at four institutions, in three states, moving among her teaching duties with the click of a mouse while her black Labrador lies curled at her feet.  She hardly ever sees a campus, spending much of her time at home here in a 100-year-old cottage next to a small lake.

Being a virtual adjunct, she says, means never having to play office politics or worry about ticking off her supervisors.  And if any gig goes sour, it's easy for her to pick up another one.

"It's good to have backup schools because you don't ever know if a dean is going to change or if I'll make a faux pas," she says.  "So it's OK if I lose one."

But she is in no danger of losing any of her jobs right now.  In fact, Ms. Achterhof and other online adjuncts are in high demand, as colleges increasingly turn to part-time faculty members to help expand their distance-education programs.

The strategy saves money for colleges, most of which are dealing with tight budgets.  Also, full-time faculty members are often reluctant to make the leap from the familiar setting of the lecture hall to the un-known arena of the virtual classroom.

Some critics say, however, that the quality of distance-education programs might be threatened by the presence of so many part-timers.  And faculty unions argue that increases in part-time faculty jobs, even if on-line, further limit the prospects of both full-time faculty members and adjuncts who want permanent teaching positions.

LONG HOURS

Ms. Achterhof is perhaps an extreme example of what some are calling a new breed of adjunct professor.  She did not start her career in academe.  She used to own and run a cafe called Andre's, in Grand Haven, Mich.  Later she earned her master's in educational leadership and her doctorate in organization and management and taught traditional courses for a few years at Baker College.  She was offered $35,000 a year to teach there permanently, but in the late 1990s she found that online teaching was a better fit--and more lucrative, too.

Now she makes more money and can set her own schedule, teaching courses like "Leadership Development" and "Negotiation and Dispute Resolution" to students who log on at their convenience.

Most of her days are spent reading e-mail messages in her small, wood-paneled home office.  A vast majority are students' responses to study questions, or student essays or other assignments for her to grade.

She quickly scrolls through the messages and types a response to each one.  Occasionally she takes a break to do laundry, wash the dishes, or fix her husband some lunch.

The quantity of her correspondence is impressive.  Her "sent" folder shows that she shipped out 2,554 e-mail messages between February 2 and March 18--an average of about 56 messages a day.  Just about all of them are sprinkled with typographical smiley faces or other emotions.

"Super great job.  Good use of terms," she tells one student.

It helps that she can type 60 to 70 words per minute and read 1,200 words per minute.  Otherwise she doesn't know how she could complete all of her work.

On Mondays and Tuesdays she starts her virtual teaching at about 8:30 a.m. and doesn't finish until around 11 p.m.  "On Mondays and Tuesdays I am in my computer chair 14 hours a day," she says.  "I tend to get grouchy as the day goes by."

The time she spends at her desk declines throughout the week, down to about four hours on Fridays and Saturdays.  "Saturday is the day I try to get my mood back," she says.  Sunday is a day of rest.  Then it's Monday again.

How does she juggle the tasks?  Organization.

She has lists of tasks for each class, and she makes check marks as she completes each item.  A rolling rack of file folders sits next to her, one for each course she teaches.  She has her tests and discussion questions ready to go for the whole semester, so she can cut and paste each one into the appropriate course Web site when the time comes.

Continued in the article

Some professors teaching at major universities are opting to teach online instead of going to classrooms.  For example, read about and listen to Amy Dunbar (University of Connecticut) by scrolling down the document at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm#2002 

Bob Jensen's threads on ideas for teaching online are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Ideas 

Bob Jensen's threads on resources for instructors are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/newfaculty.htm#Resources 

Bob Jensen's threads on tools and tricks of the trade are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm 

Bob Jensen's main education technology page is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm 

I just shared a platform with Amy Dunbar in a workshop presented at Mercer University on November 9, 2001.  I am amazed at what both Amy and her husband (John) are accomplishing with online teaching of income tax and tax research.  

• Although they are teaching as full-time faculty at the University of Connecticut, both Amy and John teach all their courses from their house.  In practice, they don't have to go to the campus except to check mail, perform service activities, and work face-to-face with colleagues and students when needed.  In theory, they could move to a California beach house or a cabin on top of a Colorado mountain and still teach all their courses for the University of Connecticut.
  
  
• Amy just won an all-university teaching technology award from the University of Connecticut.  This is just another of her many all-university teaching awards from the University of Texas in San Antonio, the University of Iowa, and the University of Connecticut.  She has this rare ability of being rated perfect by virtually any student no matter what grade she assigns, even a failing grade.  Amy's homepage is at http://www.sba.uconn.edu/users/ADunbar/Dunbaru.htm 
  
  
• I don't have John's teaching evaluation scores (I'm told they're excellent), but you can read Amy's teaching evaluation scores on the last page (Exhibit 5) of the document at http://www.sba.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/genesis_of_an_online_course.pdf 
  (Note that the highest possible rating is 10.00 in this University of Connecticut evaluation form.
  
  
• I especially urge you to read the student evaluation narratives at http://www.sba.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/genesis_of_an_online_course.pdf 
  
  
• Amy developed all her own online course materials and relies heavily on a question and answer pedagogy using instant messaging.
  
• Amy's workshop presentations and war stories about online education are AWESOME

Differences between "popular teacher"
versus "master teacher"
versus "mastery learning"
versus "master educator"

Question
What is mastery learning?

April 24, 2006 message from Lim Teoh [bsx302@COVENTRY.AC.UK]

I am a Malaysian but currently teaching in the UK. Please forgive me if I failed to express myself clearly in English.

I just joined the discussion list months ago and found a lot of useful information for both my research and teaching career development. My sincere thanks to AECM.

As I plan to start my PhD study by end of this year, I would like to ask for your help to get some references to my research topic. I am interested in mastery learning theory and programmed instruction; I'll research into the application of these theories to accounting education. I aim to explore how the accounting knowledge can be disseminated or transferred more effectively to a large group of students.

Are there any useful databases or websites that could help me to start with this PhD reseach? Is this research topic outdated or inappropriate for me to proceed further?

Looking forward to receiving your advice and guidance.

Kind regards,

Lim
Coventry University United Kingdom

April 24, 2006 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Lim,

Here are some possible links that might help:

Differences between "popular teacher" versus "master teacher" versus "mastery learning" versus "master educator" --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#Teaching 

Also see “Mastery Learning” by http://www.humboldt.edu/~tha1/mastery.html 
This provides references to the classical literature on learning theory by Benjamin Bloom.

One of the most extensive accounting education experiments with mastery learning took place under an Accounting Education Change Commission Grant at Kansas State University. I don't think the experiment was an overwhelming success and, to my knowledge, has not been implemented in other accounting programs:

http://aaahq.org/facdev/aecc.htm

http://aaahq.org/AECC/changegrant/cover.htm 

To find a comprehensive list of references, feed in “Benjamin Bloom” and “Learning” terms into the following links:

Google Scholar --- http://scholar.google.com/advanced_scholar_search?hl=en&lr= 

Windows Live Academic --- http://academic.live.com/ 

Google Advanced Search --- http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en 

You might also be interested in metacognitive learning --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm

You can also read about asynchronous learning at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm 

Resources

Bob Jensen's tutorials and videos --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm

How can you capture and send streaming media?
Answer --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#StreamingMedia

 Teaching Tools Websites --- http://ejw.i8.com/teachweb.htm 

Bob Jensen's threads on teaching tools ---  http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm 
(included Edutainment and Games)

The American Accounting Association has a page on tools and cases --- http://aaahq.org/facdev/teaching/teaching_tools.htm

Also see the AAA’s wider set of helpers on teaching at http://aaahq.org/facdev/teach.cfm

Educause Live --- http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?SECTION_ID=34&bhcp=1

Almost 20 years after the first edition came out, the editors of The Academic’s Handbook (Duke University Press) have released a new version — the third — with many chapters on faculty careers updated and some completely new topics added. Topics covered include teaching, research, tenure, academic freedom, mentoring, diversity, harassment and more. The editors of the collection (who also wrote some of the pieces) are two Duke University professors who also served as administrators there. They are A. Leigh Deneef, a professor of English and former associate dean of the Graduate School, and Craufurd D. Goodwin, a professor of economics who was previously vice provost and dean of the Graduate School.
 Inside Higher Ed, January 10, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/workplace/2007/01/10/handbook
 

Find out what changes in the last ten years of academe are the most significant ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/workplace/2007/01/10/handbook

"A Guide to Grading Exams," by Daniel J. Solove, Concurring Opinions, December 14, 2006 --- http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2006/12/a_guide_to_grad.html

Summaries of some useful technology resources (including edutainment and games) for educators are given at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm 

"Spreadsheets in Education–The First 25 Years," by  John E Baker Director, Natural Maths john@naturalmaths.com.au  and Stephen J Sugden School of Information Technology, Bond University ssugden@bond.edu.au , July 24, 2003 --- http://www.sie.bond.edu.au/articles/1.1/bakersugden.pdf

Spreadsheets made their first appearance for personal computers in 1979 in the form of VisiCalc [45], an application designed to help with accounting tasks. Since that time, the diversity of applications of the spreadsheet program is evidenced by its continual reappearance in scholarly journals. Nowhere is its application becoming more marked than in the field of education. From primary to tertiary levels, the spreadsheet is gradually increasing in its importance as a tool for teaching and learning. By way of an introduction to the new electronic journal Spreadsheets in Education, the editors have compiled this overview of the use of spreadsheets in education. The aim is to provide a comprehensive bibliography and springboard from which others may develop their own applications and reports on educational applications of spreadsheets. For despite its rising popularity, the spreadsheet has still a long way to go before becoming a universal tool for teaching and learning, and many opportunities for its application have yet to be explored. The basic paradigm of an array of rows-and-columns with automatic update and display of results has been extended with libraries of mathematical and statistical functions, versatile graphing and charting facilities, powerful add-ins such as Microsoft Excel’s Solver, attractive and highlyfunctional graphical user interfaces, and the ability to write custom code in languages such as Microsoft’s Visual Basic for Applications. It is difficult to believe that Bricklin, the original creator of VisiCalc could have imagined the modern form of the now ubiquitous spreadsheet program. But the basic idea of the electronic spreadsheet has stood the test of time; indeed it is nowadays an indispensable item of software, not only in business and in the home, but also in academe. This paper briefly examines the history of the spreadsheet, then goes on to give a survey of major books, papers and conference presentations over the past 25 years, all in the area of educational applications of spreadsheets.

Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade in education technology can be found at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

Bob Jensen's video tutorials on spreadsheets are at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5342/

Bob Jensen's threads on the history of education technologies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm

You can read about video and audio capturing at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm

How can you capture and send streaming media?
Answer --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#StreamingMedia

June 29, 2007 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]

PAPERS ON MOBILE LEARNING

Mobile learning is the theme of the current issue of the INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF RESEARCH IN OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING. Papers include:

"Mobile Distance Learning with PDAs: Development and Testing of Pedagogical and System Solutions Supporting Mobile Distance Learners" by Torstein Rekkedal and Aleksander Dye, Norwegian School of Information Technology

"The Growth of m-Learning and the Growth of Mobile Computing: Parallel Developments" by Jason G. Caudill, Grand Canyon University

"Mobile Learning and Student Retention" by Bharat Inder Fozdar and Lalita S. Kumar, India Gandhi National Open University

"Instant Messaging for Creating Interactive and Collaborative m-Learning Environments" by James Kadirire, Anglia Ruskin University

"m-Learning: Positioning Educators for a Mobile, Connected Future" by Kristine Peters, Flinders University

The issue is available at http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/issue/view/29 . Papers are available not only in HTML and PDF formats, but you can also download and listen to them in MP3 audio versions.

International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL) [ISSN 1492-3831] is a free, refereed ejournal published by Athabasca University - Canada's Open University. For more information, contact Paula Smith, IRRODL Managing Editor; tel: 780-675-6810; fax: 780-675-672;
email: irrodl@athabascau.ca ;
Web: http://www.irrodl.org/ .

See also:

"Are You Ready for Mobile Learning?" By Joseph Rene Corbeil and Maria Elena Valdes-Corbeil, University of Texas at Brownsville EDUCAUSE QUARTERLY, vol. 30, no. 2, 2007 http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm07/eqm0726.asp 

"Frequent use of mobile devices does not mean that students or instructors are ready for mobile learning and teaching."

Knowledge Media Laboratory --- http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/programs/index.asp?key=38
The Carnegie Foundation

The Knowledge Media Laboratory works to create a future in which communities of teachers, faculty, programs, and institutions collectively advance teaching and learning by exchanging their educational knowledge, experiences, ideas, and reflections by taking advantage of various technologies and resources.

The KML is currently working with its partners, including Carnegie Foundation programs, to achieve the following goals:

• To develop digital (or electronic) tools and resources that help to make knowledge of effective teaching practices and educational transformation efforts visible, shareable, and reusable.

• To explore synergy among various technologies to better support the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

• To build the capacity for faculty and teachers independently to take advantage of information and communications technologies that enable them to re-examine, rethink, and represent teaching and students learning, and to share the outcomes in an effective and efficient way.

• To sustain communities of practice engaged in collaboratively improving teaching and student learning by building common areas to exchange knowledge and by building repositories for the representation of effective practice.

Bob Jensen's threads on teaching resources are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

The FEI has a new 16-page fraud checklist that can be downloaded for $50. Access to an online database is $129 --- Click Here

"New research provides resources on fraud prevention and financial reporting," AccountingWeb, January 18, 2008 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=104443

Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF), the research affiliate of Financial Executives International (FEI), has announced the release of two important new pieces of research designed to aid public company management and corporate boards in the efficient evaluation of their assessment of reporting issues and internal controls. A new FERF Study, entitled "What's New in Financial Reporting: Financial Statement Notes from Annual Reports," examines disclosures from 2006 annual reports for the 100 largest publicly-traded companies which used particularly innovative techniques to clearly address difficult accounting issues. The study identifies and analyzes recent reporting trends and common practices in financial statements.

The report illustrates how companies addressed specific accounting issues recently promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and in doing so, uncovered a number of trends, which included:

• Most of the disclosures selected appear to have been developed specifically for a company's own operations and industry standards, rather than "boilerplate" disclosures.

• Four accounting areas identified with a considerable variation in disclosures. The examples cited in these areas used innovative techniques to clearly address difficult accounting issues.
   

  1. Commitments and contingencies
      
  2. Derivatives and financial instruments
      
  3. Goodwill and intangibles
      
  4. Revenue recognition

Twenty-five out of 100 filers in the 2006 reporting season reported tangible asset impairments as a critical accounting policy.
 

Many companies report condensed consolidating cash flows statements as part of their segment disclosures, although not required by SFAS No. 131, Disclosures about Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information.

 

To further facilitate use of this report as a reference tool, all of the financial statement footnotes gathered for the study are available to members on the Financial Executives International Web site.

"FERF undertook this study to provide our members with an illustration of how companies have used innovative techniques to clearly address difficult accounting concerns," said Cheryl Graziano, vice president, research and operations for FERF. "Recent accounting issues publicized by the FASB and the SEC have had a direct impact on members of the financial community, and the report shows that many companies are taking action."

"We hope that all financial executives can utilize the report as both a quick update to summarize recent trends in the most annual reporting season, as well as a reference to address common accounting issues. The convenience of the online database will provide executives with a readily handy tool when drafting their own annual reports," said Graziano.

A second piece of research by FEI, entitled the "FERF Fraud Risk Checklist," provides boards of directors and management with a series of questions to help in assessing the potential risk factors associated with fraudulent financial reporting and the misappropriation of assets. These questions were developed from a number of key sources on financial fraud and offer executives a single framework in which to evaluate their company's reporting, while providing a sample structure for management to use in documenting its thought process and conclusions.

"Making improvements to compliance with Sarbanes Oxley is a daily practice for financial executives, and the first step in efficient evaluation of internal controls is the proper assessment of potential exposures or risks associated with fraud," said Michael Cangemi, president and CEO, Financial Executives International. "Through conversations with members of the financial community, we learned that, while this type of risk assessment is a routine skill for auditors, many members of management are not always familiar with this concept. This checklist combines knowledge from the leading resources on fraud to help financial management take a proactive step in evaluating their company's practices and identifying areas for improvement."

The annual report study, including the full report and access to the online database, and the fraud checklist, are available for purchase on the FEI Web site

Bob Jensen's threads on fraud are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud.htm

Property and Damage Costs of Schools
Something to consider in the design and implementation of AIS courses

From THEJournal Newsletter on June 28, 2006

Asset loss and damage costs the average district nearly a quarter of a million dollars a year. Larger districts lose even more, some topping $1.4 million in loss and damage annually. These are among the results of a recent study of district asset management, conducted in conjunction with Quality Education Data (QED). The study, which was co-sponsored by Follett Software Co., provides a picture of how districts manage their assets and the growing challenges they face. Its findings illustrate the importance of the emerging category of Educational Resource Management (ERM) solutions-products that centralize the management of district resources. The study surveyed 479 district business managers, administrators and technology chiefs in all 48 contiguous states. Respondents were asked about the problems they faced in managing assets, and about the systems they used to keep track of everything from laptops to band uniforms. They were also asked to estimate the cost of loss, damage, and redundant purchases of these assets. Other major findings of the study included: Investments in educational technology (primarily computer and AV equipment) are among the assets most at risk, averaging more than $80,000 in loss annually per district. Districts that used manual tracking for computers reported a 41% greater annual cost of loss/damage than those that used a commercial asset tracking program, and 32% greater loss than those that used a spreadsheet/database program. For the full story, visit http://www.fsc.follett.com/newsnevents/pressreleases/release.cfm?pressID=22

Bob Jensen's threads on tricks and tools of the trade are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

Jensen Comment
This might be useful for essay examinations when student handwriting is difficult to read and grade. The digital pen idea is not new, but the hardware is much improved.
See http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,crid=1553,contentid=9097

Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

From the University of Wisconsin
Distance Education Clearinghouse ---  http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html

The Distance Education Clearinghouse is a comprehensive and widely recognized Web site bringing together distance education information from Wisconsin, national, and international sources. New information and resources are being added to the Distance Education Clearinghouse on a continual basis.

The Clearinghouse is managed and maintained by the University of Wisconsin-Extension, in cooperation with its partners and other University of Wisconsin institutions.

Jensen Comment
This site has glossaries and many links to other distance education sites.

Bob Jensen's links to distance education sites are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm

Publish Exams Online --- http://www.examprofessor.com/main/index.cfm

Bob Jensen's threads on exam technology are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm

From The Scout Report on June 23, 2005

Adium X 0.82 http://www.adiumx.com/ 

For better or worse, more people enjoy copious amounts of online messaging while at work, at play, or just out at the beach. Adium X 0.82 is one such device that enables this particular form of social communication. It happens to function as a multiple protocol instant-messaging client, and it includes support for AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Trepia, and Napster. With the program, users can manage multiple conversations and also maintain a presence on multiple services simultaneously. This version of Adium is compatible with Mac OS X 10.2.7 or later.

From the T.H.E. Newsletter on May 4, 2005

CrystalGraphics Inc., a developer and publisher of add-on products for Microsoft Office, has released PowerPlugs: Video Backgrounds Player and PowerPlugs: Video Backgrounds Content . The Video Backgrounds Player is a unique software product that plugs directly into Microsoft PowerPoint allowing users to select and insert full-screen moving backgrounds into their presentations quickly and effortlessly. It is also compatible with all of PowerPoint's animation tools and text-editing capabilities. Video Backgrounds Content is the perfect complement to the Video Backgrounds Player software. It features nine volumes that each include 25 unique background video clips optimized for use with PowerPoint so they can play back smoothly in real time on most Pentium III or higher PCs. The footage is royalty free, so you can use it as many times as you like in your presentations with no added cost.

Teaching.com --- http://www.teaching.com/ 

Free, non-commercial educational Web services for educators and students. Over 1,300,000 hits per month, 89,000 unique visitors per month, over 200,000 current registered members from 112 different countries.

The AICPA unveiled a Web site for CPAs interested in information technology ( www.aicpa.org/infotech ). It offers resources on system security and reliability; tools and checklists to help CPAs assess organizational practices pertaining to information privacy, e-commerce and similar subjects; and guidance on standards and regulations. In addition to the resources available to all visitors, the site contains special content accessible only by those CPAs who hold the Institute’s Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) credential or belong to the IT Membership Section.
News Digest, Journal of Accountancy, May 2005, Page 14 --- http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/may2005/news.htm#information

International Society for Technology in Education --- http://www.iste.org/

ISTE is a nonprofit professional organization with a worldwide membership of leaders and potential leaders in educational technology. We are dedicated to providing leadership and service to improve teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in K–12 education and teacher education. We provide our members with information, networking opportunities, and guidance as they face the challenge of incorporating computers, the Internet, and other new technologies into their schools. Home of the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), the Center for Applied Research in Education Technology (CARET), and the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), ISTE meets its mission through knowledge generation, professional development, and advocacy. ISTE also represents and informs its membership regarding educational issues of national scope through ISTE–DC. We support a worldwide network of Affiliates and Special Interest Groups (SIGs), and we offer our members the latest information through our periodicals and journals.

An organization of great diversity, ISTE leads through presenting innovative educational technology books and programs; conducting professional development workshops, forums, and symposia; and researching, evaluating, and disseminating findings regarding educational technology on an international level. ISTE’s Web site, www.iste.org, contains coverage of many topics relevant to the educational technology community.

Bookstore. L&L. NECC, NETS. About ISTE, Educator Resources, Join!, Membership, Affiliates

ISTE 100, SIGs, Professional Development, Publications, Research Projects, Standards Projects, Site Map

Classroom and Building Design --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Design

Accounting Student Resources --- http://www.accountingstudents.com/

Accounting Software   (240)      Accounting Standards   (263)      Financial Accounting   (215)

Accounting Jobs   (453)      Accounting Studies   (248)

When is a hand a mouse? Carrie Rigney’s fourth-grade students know. When they walk up to a board in the front of the room and move their hands over Arizona on a map of the United States — Arizona lights up. And Rigney herself certainly knows. When she’s teaching her students rotational symmetry (something that used to take her several days but now only takes one day) and moves her hand over a polyhedron on the same board — the polyhedron spins around. When she wants students to see the question first and then the answer on the board, she shows them the question and then moves her hand slowly down to reveal the answer little by little.  Rigney’s using a Rear Projection SMART Board interactive whiteboard with an integrated projector, a mobile cabinet, a 66” screen, and a crank that adjusts its height between 69 inches and 83 inches. And she loves it. “I use it all day,” she says. “I use it for everything.” Creating her lessons on the accompanying software, Rigney downloads text and images from the Internet and saves them for later application on the board. She can show videos on the board and even “write” over the top of them. Because the board is projected from the rear, she can also stand anywhere in the classroom and not cast a shadow.
T.H.E. Focus Newsletter, November 18, 2004

Video and Audio Recording for Classrooms

September 8, 2005 message from Glen Gray [glen.gray@CSUN.EDU]

Does anybody have any experience with Microsoft’s OneNote? What caught my eye was the mention in an article that you can use OneNote to record audio (e.g., during a meeting) on your computer (like a tape recorder). I was looking at the program on the Microsoft site and see that OneNote is software for organizing stuff (note, files, graphics, etc.).

Any thoughts for comments on OneNote? Any comments on other programs that I could use to record audio? I particularly want to record during meetings. I know that there are stand alone recorders, but it is one more thing to take to the meeting.

Glen L. Gray, PhD, CPA
Dept. of Accounting & Information Systems
College of Business & Economics
California State University, Northridge
Northridge, CA 91330-8372
818.677.3948
http://www.csun.edu/~vcact00f 

September 9, 2005 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Glen,

There is a highly favorable review (that does not go far into the audio features) at http://wordprocessing.about.com/od/choosingsoftware/a/onenoterev.htm 
I suspect Richard Campbell will weigh in on this with better suggestions.

I would think there is a problem with audio hardware much the same as I have a problem with my video camera at meetings. Unless I sit in the front row, it is difficult to pick up the speaker’s voice. If there is audience/class discussion throughout a room, it is very difficult to capture individual speakers.

The FBI probably has better audio capturing hardware than we can put on our laptops, but I would not expect OneNote software to magically allow us to get quality recordings at many meetings.

That does not mean that we should not download the free trial offer just to test out OneNote for all the many features claimed in the review above. It would seem that it will work optimally with a Tablet PC.

Bob Jensen

September 8, 2005 reply from Amy Dunbar

I don’t have experience with OneNote, but capturing audio is always a struggle for me. Camtasia is wonderful for screen capture video with audio, but to just record audio has presented more problems for me. I used to use the Microsoft Sound Recorder (under Accessories in Windows) and convert the wav file to an .rm file using Real Producer. Now that I have left the Real world (;-)), I am recording in Screenblaster and rendering the file as an MP3 file. I find it annoying, however, to have a music program, like ITunes, open it. I just want it to immediately play when the student clicks the link. If anyone has a better solution for converting wav files to a better format, I would love to hear about it. A UConn ITS person recommended CDEX

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/ , which is open source freeware.

Back to what you were asking, Glen. How would you capture everyone’s voices unless they had mics? I know audio conference tools can capture everyone, but in that case, each person is speaking into a mic at his/her computer.

And speaking of audio conferencing, does anyone know how many people can be in a Skype audio conference? I have only experienced three at a time. I am teaching a small PhD class, and I have asked my students to download Skype ( www.skype.com ) so we can easily find each other because all of us work at home a lot (which is a good thing in these times of skyrocketing gas prices). When a California colleague’s cell phone connection was to weak to have a conversation, we switched to Skype, and it worked like a charm.

Amy at UCon

September 9, 2005 reply from Jim Richards [J.Richards@MURDOCH.EDU.AU]

Hi Amy,

My recollection with Skype is that the maximum is 5.

Cheers,
Jim Richards
Murdoch Business School
Murdoch University South Street
MURDOCH WA
Australia

September 9, 2005 reply from Jim Richards [J.Richards@MURDOCH.EDU.AU]

Hi Glen
You may find that to record using your laptop might need a good quality omni-directional microphone to pick up a sufficiently loud signal.

Some open source software that can be used to record and export mp3 files is Audacity ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net ).

We use it at my local Church to record all of our ministry. You need to also download and install LAME to be able to export to mp3.

Cheers.

Jim Richards
Murdoch Business School
Murdoch University South Street
MURDOCH WA 6150 Phone: 61-8-9360-2706 Fax: 61-8-9310-5004

September 8, 2005 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Amy,

I can’t help with you’re SKYPE question.

But I want to add that the new version of Camtasia allows for camcorder input so that the image is no longer just confined to computer screen images. Even though digital video takes up massive amounts of space, Camtasia videos do not have to be space hogging full screens and the videos can be compressed in the final production.

The big problem with video capturing at meetings is that the video is often less interesting than the audio unless the speaker is using visual aids. Capturing video of a talking head is a total waste of space digitally speaking. I still use an analog camera and space is no problem since video tapes are cheap ways to store lots of video.

My problem of course is that my hundreds of video tapes will soon be as obsolete as my withering 8-track audio tapes. Soon we won’t be able to buy new machines that will play video tapes, so take good care of the old players in your house or office. And consider putting them to DVD in the near future.

Bob Jensen

Converting Home Videos to DVDs

Q: Are there services that will take home video and burn it to a DVD that can be played anywhere? I know I can do this on my PC, but it takes too much time and I keep running into problems when I try it.

A: There are such services. One that I have tested and found to be good is called YesVideo (yesvideo.com). You bring your videos into a store that works with YesVideo -- including CVS, Walgreen, Best Buy and Target -- and they send the tapes to YesVideo, which converts them to a very nice DVD. You also can get the same service online, at Sony's ImageStation site ( www.imagestation.com ). Sony calls its service Video2DVD, but it really is just the YesVideo service. My full review of the service is at: ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20040128.html. Because YesVideo works through retailers, prices vary, but are usually around $25-$35 for a two-hour video. Each DVD is divided into chapters based on a YesVideo process that tries to detect scene changes in your videos. At the end, there are three 60-second music videos made from scenes on your videos. The company also will put your prints, slides and even old film onto DVD, but this costs more and is handled by fewer retailers. Details are at the YesVideo Web site.
Walter Mossberg, "Converting Home Videos to DVDs," The Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2005; Page B3 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112492084317722331,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

At last there will be a way to efficiently store digital video
But this is no ordinary recording process. The disc has more than 60 times the storage capacity of a standard DVD, while the drive writes about 10 times faster than a conventional DVD burner. That means the disc can store up to 128 hours of video content--almost twice enough for the full nine seasons of Seinfeld--and records it all in less than three hours.
Holographic Memory
By Gregory T. Huang , "Holographic Memory," MIT's Technology Review, September 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/09/issue/feature_memory.asp?trk=nl

Review of video streaming software --- http://www.homeofficereports.com/streaming video.htm
 Scroll down to the table of software options and ratin

Convert AVI to WMV, BMP, JPG, etc. - OSS Video Decompiler 4.0 --- http://www.tomdownload.com/multimedia_design/video/oss_video_decompiler.htm

Powerful Video Decompiler that supports decompiling video files to extract the individual image frames. Supports AVI to WMV, AVI to GIF, AVI to (PNG, JPEG, JPG, EMF, WMV, BMP, and more). Video Decompiling (Supported formats AVI to GIF, AVI to PNG (Portable Network Graphics), AVI to JPEG, AVI to TIFF, AVI to EMF, AVI to WMV). Convert multiple video files at once (Batch Conversion). Many modern features were added to the latest versions. Now you can save and load video conversion and effects settings using XML.

Sociology professor designs SAGrader software for grading student essays
Student essays always seem to be riddled with the same sorts of flaws. So sociology professor Ed Brent decided to hand the work off to a computer. Students in Brent's Introduction to Sociology course at the University of Missouri-Columbia now submit drafts through the SAGrader software he designed. It counts the number of points he wanted his students to include and analyzes how well concepts are explained. And within seconds, students have a score. It used to be the students who looked for shortcuts, shopping for papers online or pilfering parts of an assignment with a simple Google search. Now, teachers and professors are realizing that they, too, can tap technology for a facet of academia long reserved for a teacher alone with a red pen. Software now scores everything from routine assignments in high school English classes to an essay on the GMAT, the standardized test for business school admission. (The essay section just added to the Scholastic Aptitude Test for the college-bound is graded by humans). Though Brent and his two teaching assistants still handle final papers and grades students are encouraged to use SAGrader for a better shot at an "A."
"Computers Now Grading Students' Writing," ABC News, May 8, 2005 ---
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=737451
Jensen Comment:  Aside from some of the obvious advantages such as grammar checking, students should have a more difficult time protesting that the grading is subjective and unfair in terms of the teacher's alleged favored versus less-favored students.  Actually computers have been used for some time in grading essays, including the GMAT graduate admission test --- http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=723

References to computer grading of essays --- http://coeweb.fiu.edu/webassessment/references.htm

You can read about PEG at http://snipurl.com/PEGgrade

Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=723

What works in education?

September 2, 2004 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu] 

"CONSUMER REPORTS" FOR RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

The What Works Clearinghouse was established in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences with $18.5 million in funding to "provide educators, policymakers, researchers, and the public with a central and trusted source of scientific evidence of what works in education." The Clearinghouse reviews, according to relevance and validity, the "effectiveness of replicable educational interventions (programs, products, practices, and policies) that intend to improve student outcomes." This summer, the Clearinghouse released two of its planned reports: peer-assisted learning interventions and middle school math curricula. For more information about the What Works Clearinghouse and descriptions of all topics to be evaluated, go to http://www.w-w-c.org/ 

See also:

"'What Works' Research Site Unveiled" by Debra Viadero EDUCATION WEEK, vol. 23, no. 42, pp. 1, 33, July 14, 2004 http://www.edweek.org/ew/ew_printstory.cfm?slug=42Whatworks.h23 

"'What Works' Site Opens Dialogue on Research" Letter to Editor from Talbot Bielefeldt, Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology, International Society for Technology in Education EDUCATION WEEK, vol. 23, no. 44, p. 44, August 11, 2004 http://www.edweek.org/ew/ew_printstory.cfm?slug=44Letter.h23 

Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm 

The Complete Guide to Googlemania

They named it after the biggest number they could imagine. But it wasn't big enough. On the eve of a very public stock offering, here's everything you ever wanted to know about Google. A Wired Magazine special report --- http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.03/google.html 

Guardian's great tips on using Google --- http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1117818,00.html 

Bob Jensen's search helpers (including help in finding books, journals, pictures, media, colleges, and scholars) --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm 

September 2, 2004 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu] 

INFORMATION LITERACY RESOURCE

"It has become increasingly clear that students cannot learn everything they need to know in their field of study in a few years of college. Information literacy equips them with the critical skills necessary to become independent lifelong learners." The ALA Association of College & Research Libraries' "Information Literacy" website provides resources for faculty and librarians to use in teaching and promoting information literacy. The site includes core readings, syllabi, tutorials, and workshop ideas. The website is available at http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/informationliteracy.htm 

ACRL, a division of the American Library Association, is a professional association of academic librarians and other interested individuals. It is dedicated to enhancing the ability of academic library and information professionals to serve the information needs of the higher education community and to improve learning, teaching, and research. For more information, contact Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association, 50 East Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795 USA; tel: 800-545-2433; fax: 312-280-2520; email: acrl@ala.org ; Web: http://www.ala.org/acrl/. 

How to make your own videos for students --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm 

From Syllabus News on August 3, 2004

Product News Flash: Here Comes the Multimedia Blue Book

Testing and assessment software provider Questionmark has joined with Macromedia, creator of all things “Flash,” to release a software tool that enables authors of quizzes, tests, exams and surveys to incorporate Flash movies within questions.

The companies said that the Questionmark Perception Flash Connector works together with Macromedia’s Flash to provide “a high level of context within which a question can be answered.” For example, detecting a hazardous situation such as a chemical spill or an ignition source within the setting of a Flash movie can measure someone's sensitivity to hazards better than a multiple choice question. Now authors can use sound and videos and place measurable interactions within that context. Perception Flash Connector, which supports Flash 5, Flash MX and Flash MX 2004, makes it possible to evaluate and score an interaction and pass the information on to Perception for collation and reporting.

"Home Movies Go Straight to DVD," by Walter Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2004 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109035905524368956,00.html?mod=gadgets%5Flead%5Fstory%5Fcol 

Camcorder Skips Videotape And Records on Tiny Discs; Just 30 Minutes of Grandpa July 21, 2004; Page D4 Ah, summer. The perfect time for splashing in the ocean, embarking on cross-country road trips, and sticking one unlucky family member with the video camera and instructions to capture every memory along the way. If you happen to be that person and you're using a digital camcorder, you might also be strapped with the responsibility of editing and transferring the movie onto a disc when you get home.

To avoid this extra step, you may want to use one of the newer camcorders that record footage directly onto DVDs, instead of the tapes that are commonly used. With these models, you can just pop out the disc, slap it into any DVD player, or computer with a DVD drive, and watch your videos instantly.

This week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I returned from our own vacations to evaluate one of the leading direct-to-DVD models: Sony's DCR-DVD201 Handycam Camcorder. Sony also makes a 101 model, but we didn't test it. The 201, which sells for about $800 online and lists for $1,000, and the 101, which sells for around $700 online and lists for $900, are pricey enough to scare some customers away, but we gave the 201 a whirl to see how good it really was.

Katie took the 201 model along on vacation and used it primarily to record her grandfather telling stories of his experiences in World War II, something her family wanted preserved on DVD. The little DCR-DVD201, which measures about two inches by 3.5 inches by five inches, and weighs just a little more than a pound with the disc and battery, slipped easily into Katie's suitcase. Even the camera's battery-charging power brick is lightweight and small.

Sony's DCR-DVD201 Handycam Camcorder

The 201 looks sleek all over. Various connecting sockets, buttons, switches and other features are hidden in inconspicuous places or behind covers. The camera's 2.5-inch color LCD viewing screen folds out to reveal multiple buttons housed against the camera, but closing the LCD neatly covers the buttons and gives the device an uncomplicated look. On its side, a circular door pops open to hold your three-inch DVD-R or DVD-RW.

These discs are a definite downside to this video camera. Though they play in a standard DVD player, they are physically much smaller than a regular DVD and hold much less video. In fact, each mini-DVD holds only 20 minutes of footage at high recording quality, 30 minutes at standard quality, and 60 minutes at low quality. Katie shot her footage in standard quality and ran through two discs in no time.

The real kicker is that each DVD-R disc -- which can be recorded upon only once -- costs about $6.50. And the re-recordable DVD-RW discs cost $10 apiece. Some retailers sell these discs for less, but they're still costly. Sony probably figures that people who can buy $1,000 video cameras won't think twice about a $10 disc that holds just 30 minutes, but they seemed pricey to us. Sony has future plans for releasing "dual-layer" media, which can hold twice the data of regular single-layer discs, but isn't talking about pricing or availability dates.

Continued in the article

April 30, 2004 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu] 

"How do instructors learn to teach online? What are their perceptions as they enter this new learning environment for the first time?" To find out, Dianne Conrad, assistant professor of adult education at the University of New Brunswick, interviewed five instructors in a Canadian university who were teaching online courses for the first time. Her interviews showed that the instructors drew upon their fact-to-face teaching experience, but that they "revealed very little awareness of issues of collaborative learning, of learners' social presence, or of the role of community in online learning environments." The details of Conrad's qualitative study are available in "University Instructors' Reflections on Their First Online Teaching Experiences" (JOURNAL OF ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING NETWORKS, vol. 8, issue 2, April 2004) at http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v8n2/v8n2_conrad.asp.

The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN) [ISSN 1092-8235] is an electronic publication of The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C). Current and back issues are available at http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/.

For an account of online teaching from a veteran instructor, see "Less is More: Designing an Online Course" (DEOSNEWS, vol. 13, issue 4, April 2004; http://www.ed.psu.edu/acsde/deos/deosnews/deosnews.asp) by R. Thomas Berner, professor emeritus of journalism and American studies at the Pennsylvania State University.

YourLearning.com --- http://www.yourlearning.com/churchillreport.html 

The report may be beneficial for individuals who are involved in online learning developments in healthcare education in the USA and other countries. The institutions visited during the fellowship may find it useful to read own and others case studies, to compare and reflect on the developments and implications on teaching and learning in healthcare. The report may be useful for other institutions in the USA, to add to the picture of diversity in online learning developments within USA. .

Bob Jensen's threads on ideas for teaching online are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Ideas 

Bob Jensen's threads on tools and tricks of the trade are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm 

Bob Jensen's main education technology page is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm 

Educators designing their own web pages may find the National Cancer Institute's "Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines" a useful starting place. The publication includes suggestions for page layout and styles, content organization, navigation, and accessibility. The guide is available online at http://www.usability.gov/guidelines/Usability_guidelines.pdf .

"Seton Hall has developed free software that helps instructors turn their lectures into multimedia presentations for course Web sites. The software, called SyncStream ( http://tltc.shu.edu/initiatives/streaming/syncstream.htm  ), makes it easy to mix video of a lecture with a PowerPoint presentation or other slide show. To use the program instructors must first record their lectures in the streaming-video format developed by RealNetworks."
Tracey Sutherland [tracey@AAAHQ.ORG] 

Alternatives to Expensive Video Conferencing

October 21, 2003 message from Amy Dunbar [Amy.Dunbar@BUSINESS.UCONN.EDU] 

As I understand it, Centra Symposium is the cadillac. Placeware is more reasonably priced, but can do what you want. Also, Fordham was talking about Tegrity in one of his postings, but I have never worked with that product. As for VOIP, I don't think software is there yet.

I use telephone conferencing in conjunction with Placeware. I am cc'ing Dave Will, the guy who worked with me. He can send you information on Placeware. I think he set up Penn State's MBA program with Placeware.

Amy Dunbar 
UConn

Macromedia - Flash Technotes: Web Sites Devoted to Macromedia Flash and Flash Developers 
http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/flash_websites.htm 

Creative Ideas for Teaching --- http://www.creativeteachingsite.com/ 

Where are some great resources (hard copy and electronic) for teaching ethics?

"An Inventory of Support Materials for Teaching Ethics in the Post-Enron Era,” by C. William Thomas, Issues in Accounting Education, February 2004, pp. 27-52 --- http://aaahq.org/ic/browse.htm

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a "Post-Enron" annotated bibliography of resources for accounting professors who wish to either design a stand-alone course in accounting ethics or who wish to integrate a significant component of ethics into traditional courses across the curriculum.  Many of the resources listed are recent, but some are classics that have withstood the test of time and still contain valuable information.  The resources listed include texts and reference works, commercial books, academic and professional articles, and electronic resources such as film and Internet websites.  Resources are listed by subject matter, to the extent possible, to permit topical access.  Some observations about course design, curriculum content, and instructional methodology are made as well.

How About a Game of Bingo for Ethics Fun and Learning?

Using Games to Enhance Student Understanding of Professional and Ethical Responsibilities,” by M. Elizabeth Haywood, Dorothy A. McMullen, and Donald E. Wygal, Issues in Accounting Education, February 2004, pp. 85-100 --- http://aaahq.org/ic/browse.htm

 ABSTRACT: Given recent corporate scandals, the credibility of the accounting profession has been called into question. In order to restore public trust, accounting educators need to devise ways to convey the importance of ethics in our profession to our students. An alternative approach to using a traditional lecture to teach ethics is to use games. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a game strategy to teach ethics and professionalism to students. Using games makes learning more fun and also helps to maintain student interest and involvement in the learning process. Student feedback has been positive and encouraging on the use of this format to teach ethics and professional responsibilities.

Understanding Bandwidth and Streaming Media Production 

Understanding bandwidth is really quite simple, and it is necessary to have a fundamental grasp of what bandwidth is if you are creating streaming media files such as WMV, ASF or CAMV etc. --- http://www.techsmith.com/products/camtasia/fow/bandwidth.asp 

The purpose of this document is to provide an easy to understand, general explanation of what bandwidth means, and how it relates to video production of screen recordings and content delivery. It is not a technical dissertation, and will therefore, for reasons of simplicity of explanation, use approximation and rounding in most calculations.

• What is Bandwidth? 
• File Size, Bit Rate, Bandwidth and Data Transmission 
• Bandwidth and Streaming Media File Transmission 
• Video Compression and Key Frames 
• Frame Rate and Bandwidth 
• Network Congestion, Bandwidth Spikes and Buffering 
• Audio and Bandwidth

How to Capture Streaming Audio and Video

It is not possible to download streaming audio/video files like we download such things as MPEG and MP3 files.  I asked my friends on the AECM to indicate how I could obtain a copy of the scandalous Enron Home Movie that can be viewed as streaming video from the Houston Ch