[Idag] Notes from IDAG meeting of March 4 at the MDLA conference

[Bobbi H. Dubins]

This is a recap of our face to face meeting at the MDLA conference on March 4.
 
Turnout was great!  We had 12 people show up for the face to face meeting March 4 at 4:30, the first day of the conference.  Not bad, considering many of us were traveling but not staying over, and also that our meeting was scheduled for the same time as the reception, which included passing up wine and cheese. lol.  I know I had trouble walking past that and moving on to the meeting. lol.
 
In attendance were:
Karen Evans - Howard
Joel Kinison - College of S. MD
John McNally - VIlla Jullie
Karen Rubinstein - Morgan State
Linda Smelser - UMUC
Jennifer Bopp - AACC
Julie Shattuck - Frederick CC
Andrew Rein - UMUC
Melissa Harris - Harford
Pam Stefanuca - Johns Hopkins
Sue Difonso - Carroll
Bobbi Dubins - Allegany College
 
Welcome to 4 new members - John McNally, Linda Smelser, Pam Stefanuca and Sue Difonso.
 
We briefly discussed the previous meeting, which as conducted online using Elluminate, hosted by Robin Bagent of TVCC (thanks Robin!).  Robin gave us an overview of Elluminate and allowed us to experiment with it ourselves.  It seems like a great video conferencing package and quite easy to use.  This was our very first virtual meeting and was a great success.  I didn't make a note of it, but I believe there were 8 of us in attendance.  I believe that Robin "archived" the meeting for those of us who might want to view it.  Robin, if that is true would you be so kind to let us know how to access it?  Or perhaps it might be easier for whoever is interested to post their interest here and then Robin will get the information to you.  I'm not sure we want to post it online anywhere as not everyone realized we were being recorded.  (I guess that is something we should discuss as a group at some point.  I also recorded part of our meeting at MDLA, but did not let everyone there know I was doing that, so I'm a little uncomfortable with posting that audio file also.)
 
At our virtual meeting I also spoke briefly about the process I used to create podcasts.  I do not use iTunes University...I use blogger and feedburner to publish my podcasts and then they can be accessed by subscribing to the podcast through iTunes.  This is a process that can be used by individual instructors who wish to podcast but who do not have the "support" technology infrastructure at their institution.  All you need is a place to store your files on the internet and the rest can be done completely independent of your institution.
 
Next, we each took turns talking about projects we were currently working on or sharing information about a piece of software.    Joel also shared some of the information he presented at the conference...I can't recall the name of the presentation but know that it included information about free software...something we all are always interested in!  Thanks Joel!  Some of the software/web sites we discussed are below.  I made a note of who discussed the software if I was able to remember it.
 
Software discussed:

		Switchpod (Joel)
		Gabcast (Karen Rubinstein)
		Never Winter Nights - competitor to Second Life 
		Merlot - Julie Shattuck (Bobbi requested information on this)
		Zoho - Joel
		Adobe Connect Presenter - Linda Smelser
		Angel - Jennifer Bopp
		Skype - Bobbi
		Articulate (plug in for Powerpoint - converts PP to Flash, interaction) - Joel

	

		Flashpaper - converts powerpoint to pdf - Melissa Harris
		Cutepdf free PDF creator - Karen (?)
		Foxit - creates PDF - Andrew
		feedforall podcasting - Karen Evans

Some of the projects we discussed were:

		Storyboarding using bubble.us and Thinkature - Jennifer Bopp
		Modifying text heavy course to include more visual and alternatives - Linda 
		Blackboard and content management systems - Karen R.
		Blackboard, Flash and Dreamweaver - John McNally
		Blackboard, Pinnacle Studio video editing - Joel Kinison
		What can you teach faculty for free? - Karen Evans

 
At that point, we ran out of time.  Everyone was not able to report on projects they were working on...but it was very clear that we are one active and creative group!  
 
We will hold another meeting in late April.  Most likely it will be a face to face meeting, as we plan to discuss the idea of sharing faculty training courses/sessions.  However, I will look into also "broadcasting" the meeting using internet video conferencing...not quite sure how yet but I will look into it.
 
Thanks!
Bobbi Dubins
 
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