IPod Touch/IPhone survey
Special Projects
OWS--Open WebSites
Open Websites (OWS) is a service provided to the College of Education faculty and supervised students for easily creating, publishing, and maintaining an online presence.
Open Websites utilizes an open-source content management system (Drupal) to permit users to create single author and group websites that are visible to the world. OWS is not a commercial or proprietary application, but, rather, is a customized installation of Drupal that runs on a dedicated server in the College of Education. With OWS, users can create and maintain multiple sites; invite other users to co-edit sites with them; and upload images, documents, videos, and more to share online. (Learn more about OWS)
Telecollaborative Partnership
This research project investigates the effectiveness of online communications between native and non-native participants on second language learning. The site utilizes Simple Machine Forum, one of the most popular open sources for Web-based forum. SMF supports various group and user management tools, multiple language sets, hierarchically structured boards and sub-boards, and easy ways to set preferred themes and templates.
COE Blogs
The IDEA Studio offers blogs to faculty/staff and in turn to their students as requested. These blogs can be individualized for each students in the class or be designed as a single class blog
depending on the needs of the class. The blogs utilize WordPress, a commonly used blogging application, which is housed on the College of Ed's secure server.
MediaWiki
The IDEA Studio also installs individual instances of class wikis on the COE server as requested by faculty and staff. A screenshot of the IDEA Studio public wiki, which requires no login, is seen here. A sandbox is provided practice opportunities. The wiki is located at http://www.edb.utexas.edu/ideastudio/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page.
Social Media Professionalism
A continous project, Facebook Professionalism, is a site devoted to answering questions related to the use of social media and the impact that is potentially carried into an educator's professional life. The site was completed in fall 2012 and features news articles related to social media and professionalism. Additionally, the site provides lessons and quizzes for students entering K12 education which enhances their knowledge of the underlying dangers in social media use, how to use social media in a professional and secure manner.
Video-Based Case Learning
Adobe Connect
Digital Storytelling
Visual Voices was a joint project with the Austin Independent School District sponsored by a TARGET grant from the Texas Education Agency. As part of the project, small teams of 4th and 5th grade students worked with their teachers to create a digital storytelling video. The IDEA Studio designed and delivered the professional development content for teachers to learn how to integrate projects of this kind into their curriculum to address state standards for language arts. Visual Voices took place in 2004 and 2005.
Technology to Support Writing Skills - A Three-Tiered Training Model
Austin ISD Tech Camp extended the TARGET grant into the summer of 2006. The IDEA Studio worked with Austin ISD instructional technology staff to produce and implement a week-long camp that taught children how to write and make picture books. Three camps, held in different schools in low-income neighborhoods also brought in teachers. Attendees received instruction on how to put together their own technology camps or after school programs as well as integrate these projects into their classroom instruction. A small group of master teachers served as camp leaders and learned from the instructional technology specialists how to deliver technology professional development to their peers.
Desktop Video Conferencing - PROMISE
The Providing Multimodal Induction Support to Educators (PROMISE) program was piloted by the IDEA Studio in collaboration with the College of Education's career services office in the spring of 2005. PROMISE leverages the power of desktop video conferencing in support of novice teachers. As part of the program, university-based mentors use iChat and a secure server located in the College to observe and conference with teachers who are located in school districts outside of Central Texas. After an initial site visit and face-to-face classroom observation, the mentor use the free Mac OS X conferencing software, the Apple laptop the new teacher purchased as part of the College's Laptop Initiative, and a digital video camera to conduct a remote observation and follow-up discussion.
PORTAL (Providing Opportunities for Relevant Teaching and Access to Language)
Research shows the importance classroom observation has in teacher learning. In the PORTAL project, a group of student teachers specializing in bilingual education used desktop video conferencing to observe master teachers' classrooms. They were able to view what the teacher and her students were doing as it happened, and because they were located in another location, they were able to discuss with their instructor what was going on and how they might approach similar situations. After the class was over, the student teachers used iChat to debrief with the teacher - located across town - about her interpretations of student behavior and teaching strategies.
Virtual Fieldtrip to the Middle East
This project used an iChat connection between 6th grade students and a teacher in Kuwait City to support a slideshow about Middle Eastern cultures and customs.
"A Day in the Life" Virtual Exchange
In Spring 2007, the IDEA Studio is collaborating with Damon ISD and Eanes ISD in a virtual exchange project in which students from two schools create digital videos about life in their very different communities. Damon Middle School is located in a small town with a mostly rural population, and Forest Trail Elementary in Eanes ISD is located in Austin. The two groups are using iChat to show each other the videos, talk about what it is like to grow up in their town, and ask each other questions.
Electronic Portfolios
An ePortfolio system for the College of Education was developed by the IDEA Studio and External Projects office in the Learning Technology Center. The framework, based on the Drupal content management system, supports a combination of development and showcase portfolio strategies. The system allows students to upload files from class projects and use a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSWIG) interface to make web pages that organize the information and reflect on the student's learning and development as a teacher.
Supported file upload formats include text, images, audio, and video. Three levels of user access will allow the student to choose which parts of the portfolio to keep private, which parts to allow an instructor to view, and which parts to open up for viewing by others such as potential employers who have temporary guest accounts.