Tech-Connect Events

Upcoming Events

MOOCs, KOOCS, and SMOOCHs

(or, Reports of the Death of Traditional Higher Education have perhaps been Slightly Exaggerated)

The Tech-Connect Community invites you to join us Wednesday, May 1st from 12:00 to 1:30 PM in the Harrison-Small Auditorium for our first brown bag of 2013.

We continue with the popular topic of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). UVa's own Professor David Evans will share some of his experiences from developing two open, online courses for the Udacity platform. His Computer Science 101: Building a Search Engine was one of the first courses produced by Udacity. (To date more than 200,000 students have enrolled in CS101.)

Please try to save May 1st for this special opportunity to gain insight into MOOC development, from one of the first Udacity developers. After the presentation, Dr. Evans will entertain questions from the audience. Cookies and bottled water will be provided.

Registration for the event is not required, but it helps us with planning. To save a seat, while they last, please contact Mary Hanna at mhanna@virginia.edu. In the meantime, to learn more about Dr. Evans' recent MOOC activities and the origins of Udacity, check out these resources:

Details about this event:

  • Title: MOOCs, KOOCS, and SMOOCHs (or, Reports of the Death of Traditional Higher Education have perhaps been Slightly Exaggerated)
  • Date/Time: Wednesday May 1, Noon–1:30
  • Location: Harrison-Small Auditorium (Map »)
  • Registration: Email Mary Hanna (mhanna@virginia.edu)

Past Events

MOOCs and Distance-based Learning, Part 3

Online Learning: How to find it at UVa

The UVa Tech-Connect Community invites you to join us on Tuesday, November 27 from 12 noon–1:30 PM for the third and final brown bag in our series on MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and distance-based learning. The last panel will be a discussion entitled, “Online Learning: How to find it at UVa,” and will feature:

Gail Hunger
Gail Hunger, Ed.D., Director of Instructional Quality and faculty member at the University of Virginia's School of Continuing and Professional Studies, has expertise in Instructional Design and Technology. She has been teaching online courses for more than 20 years. Highly skilled in individual consultations with faculty, her research interest focuses on authentic instruction using Technology Enhanced Learning for course design, implementation, and scholarly activities.
Marva Barnett
Marva Barnett (Ph.D., Harvard, 1980) is the Founding Director of the Teaching Resource Center (TRC), which since 1990 has promoted excellence in teaching, helped build community, and fostered innovation throughout the University of Virginia. She works with Faculty Senate leaders to create the Fall 2012 Hybrid Challenge for Technology-Enhanced Courses and administers the program.
William Guilford
Will Guilford is Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director in Biomedical Engineering. Will also serves as the Chair of the Faculty Senate Task Force for Online Learning. The task force was formed in June 2012 at the request of the Faculty Senate to delineate and define digital and online learning, comprehensively determine what is and has been done at UVA, find quantitative evidence of its efficacy, costs, and benefits, and make strategic recommendations for our approach to digital and online learning at UVA.

The topics covered by our panelists will include:

  • What online education opportunities are being offered at UVa right now? How effective are they?
  • What are the costs and benefits associated with digital and online learning initiatives now available at UVa?
  • How has technology enhanced online and residential learning at UVa in terms of course design, implementation, and scholarly activities?

Details about this event:

  • Date: Tuesday, November 27, 2012
  • Time: Noon–1:30 PM
  • Location: Harrison Small Auditorium
  • Cookies and water provided!
  • RSVP: While registration is not required, it does help us plan for the event. If you are interested in attending this unique opportunity to speak with and hear from those on the front line of the University's distance based-education initiative, please RSVP to Mary Hanna.

As always, while registration is not required, it does help the Tech-Connect Community plan for the event; so if you can, please RSVP to Mary Hanna. Whether or not you were able to make it to the first and second events in this series, please come to the brown bag and get answers to your questions about distance-based learning at UVa!

We look forward to seeing you on the 27th!

MOOCs and Distance-based Learning, Part 2

On Wednesday, November 14, 2012, the second brown bag in our series on MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and distance-based learning featured a panel discussion by Senior Vice Provost Milton Adams, Dean Billy Cannaday, and Kristin Palmer, Project Manager for UVa's partnership with Coursera, from ITS.

Topics covered by our panel included:

  • What are the specific considerations for teaching online education? As an “adult learner” wanting to explore a topic through an MOOC, what should someone know beforehand?
  • How is online course completion recognized differently than in conventional, on-site education (e.g., degrees vs. badges vs. taking a single class)?
  • How can the University effectively maintain its student honor code in an online learning environment?
  • Is online learning the future of higher education?

MOOCs and Distance-based Learning, Part 1

On Wednesday, October 17, the UVa Tech-Connect community hosted the first of a series of panel discussions regarding online and distance-based education. An overview of the topic was provided by the following panelists:

  • Valerie Larsen, Director of the Arts & Sciences Center for Instructional Technology (ASCIT)
  • Stephanie Moore, Director of Instructional Design for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)
  • Stormy Stark, Technical Trainer & Instructor for Information Technology Services (ITS)

MOOCs are timely and important news at universities across the country—particularly here at the UVa, where the issue figured importantly in the dismissal and reinstatement of President Teresa Sullivan.

Tech-Connect will present 2 more panel discussions in all, open to all members of the University community:

Digital Storytelling

The Tech-Connect Community started 2012 off with a fun brown bag session on January 5. Kenneth Warren, a recent Curry School doctoral graduate and current University of Richmond faculty technology liaison, presented a session on Digital Storytelling, in the auditorium of the Harrison Institute/Small Library Auditorium from 11:00 to noon.

Session Description

Digital storytelling (DST) is an innovative, project-based pedagogy that faculty can use as a way to engage students with course content. Resulting as captivating narrative presentations, digital stories involve a variety of activities that include research, collaboration, and reflective and expository writing. Additionally, this process requires students to record audio, identify/create images, and produce new media that can enhance the value of their learning. This session introduced the framework of DST, the technologies that support its production, and the best practices of using it in the classroom. Learn more about DST »

Presentation Outline

Digital Storytelling Defined
What is digital storytelling and what makes a good digital story?
Seven Element Framework of DST
Elements that provide clarity to the DST process
Two Examples: Phineas Gage & Aunt Alice
Expository/Research-based, Historical/Reflective
Technologies Used
Using Free & Accessible Tools: Google Docs, Audacity, Creative Commons, iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, Youtube
Collecting the Story
Discuss LearnDST.richmond.edu and issues related to technology support

This event was free of charge and open to anyone who wished to attend.

  • Digital Storytelling
  • Thursday, January 5, 2012 • 11:00 AM–12:00 noon
  • Harrison Institute/Small Library Auditorium

How Well Do You Really Know Google?

The world's dominant Web search engine has become almost a requirement for daily living, and the phrase, "I Googled it" is heard more and more frequently. But how well do you really know Google?

  • Do you know what keywords to enter to get the results you want?
  • Are there "wildcard" characters you can type to help you search?
  • What can you do with the Advanced Search?
  • What does the phrase "I'm Feeling Lucky" gain you in the world of Google?
  • How does Google decide which results to show, in what order?
  • [Bonus!] What is the difference between Google Maps and Google Earth?

On Tuesday, October 11, 2011, Ronda Grizzle and Stormy Stark tackled these questions and covered some strategies for finding exactly what you are looking for on the Web.

Posters with "handy tips on improving search results and using popular Google products like Google Earth" can be found on the Google website. The posters were used as handouts for the presentation.

Office Wars in the Cloud (Microsoft vs. Google apps)

Event 3 from The Year of the Cloud

With so many different cloud options, it can be hard to determine which is the best for you. Michael Icore and Jeff Wimer battled head-to-head as they demonstrated the best features of Microsoft's and Google's office apps. Attendees left the session with a great idea of which products best accomplish the tasks that are important to them.

Office Wars in the Cloud was presented in collaboration with ITS Training Services, as part of this year's Office Technology Conference (OTC) on Wednesday, May 25. The theme of the conference, held in the John Paul Jones Arena, was "Is the Sky the Limit with Cloud Computing?" It featured a full day of cloud-related presentations. UVa faculty, staff, and students were welcome to attend the Office Wars presentation free of charge. The conference also featured a modified repeat of the first Tech-Connect cloud event, A Walk in the Clouds: Everyone's Introduction to Cloud Computing (renamed Climate Change for the OTC), with Stormy Stark and Matt Litchfield. That session was also open free of charge to members of the UVa community.

Mobile Learning Technologies and Cloud Computing

Event 2 from The Year of the Cloud

This session was presented by George Saltsman of Abilene Christian University. ACU is pioneering some of the most innovative uses of mobile learning technologies in academia. The Mr. Saltsman appeared remotely via videoconference technology, to explain how deploying wireless devices to all underclassmen has created unique opportunities to assess the impact of academic and social usage of mobile technologies and cloud computing among a university community.

"Mobile Learning Technologies and Cloud Computing" was hosted at the LSP Conference on Wednesday, April 6, in collaboration with the Local Support Partners and the MobiNet Community. All UVa faculty, staff, and students were invited to attend the presentation free of charge.

A Walk in the Clouds: Everyone's Introduction to Cloud Computing

Event 1 from The Year of the Cloud

It seems like everywhere you look this year, people are talking about cloud computing. Cell phone companies, computer companies, even some books and magazines are buzzing about cloud computing. But what is it? How do you use it? Will you even need to use it, and if so, what are the major things you should know about it?

With our February presentation, Tech-Connect kicked off a new series of Brown Bag lunches for 2011, called The Year of the Cloud Stormy Stark and Matt Litchfield explained cloud computing in language everyone can understand, followed by a short Q&A.

If you missed or got wait-listed for our first Introduction to Cloud Computing brown bag in February, don't despair! Visit the Office Technology Conference May 25 for a repeat of the Introduction to Cloud Computing—free of charge for those who opt not to go to the entire conference. The theme for this year's Office Technology Conference is “The Sky's the Limit with Cloud Computing”!

Mobile Phone Study Break

  • December 8, 2010
  • Hosted by the Tech-Connect Community in association with the Mobile Networking Group and the UVa Local Support Partners, the Study Break brought together vendors, apps developers, and UVa Procurement staff to help UVa community members get answers to their questions about mobile devices and wireless service in Charlottesville and around the University.
  • In the Clemons lobby, representatives from Central Virginia's major wireless and device vendors were on hand from 11 AM to 3 PM, to show off their products and services and answer questions.
  • Meanwhile, from noon until 2 PM, the UVa Mobile Networking Group met in Clemons 407 to showcase smartphone application development at UVa.

UVa Mobile Communication Fair

  • February 23, 2010
  • (Description available on the event site.)

The End of an Era: How the evolution of consumer technology will remake academic publishing, and what that means for higher education.

A Brown Bag Presentation by VP/CIO James Hilton and UVa Librarian Karin Wittenborg

  • May 12, 2010
  • Abstract: "Today, the Academy bears much of the cost of producing research and written scholarship—only to see it signed away to publishers, who sell it back again as books and journal subscriptions. In the same way that iTunes has changed the bundling and buying of music, causing seismic changes in the recording industry, new technologies and distribution models like the iBook and Kindle stores are poised to remake the landscape of academic publishing. How will scholars, their societies, and the Academy more generally show up in this new landscape? Will we use these disruptions to take greater control of academic scholarship, or will we be content with continuing to outsource its production and distribution to third parties who have a vested interest in controlling the downstream uses of our work?"

Retooling for Success in UVa's Technology Future

A Brown Bag Panel Discussion

  • January 26, 2010
  • Attendees heard a panel of UVa technology managers as they gave their perspectives on the question, “What skills do I need to be learning now in order to keep up with new developments and stay employed in the computing field?” Panelists discussed technical developments on the horizon in their areas, and the skills and knowledge that a prospective employee in that area 2-3 years from now should be prepared to offer. A question and answer period followed the presentations.

Introduction to RSS

Information Delivered to Your Digital Doorstep

  • April 21, 2009
  • A discussion and demonstration of how to subscribe to news, blogs, podcasts and other fun stuff on the web. Attendees learned how RSS can make your work and personal life easier while saving you time.

The Future of Technology at UVa

Part 1 of a Brown Bag Series with James Hilton and Mike McPherson

  • September 16, 2009
  • James Hilton, UVa Vice President and Chief Information Officer, and Mike McPherson, Associate VP and Deputy CIO, spoke about the sourcing of technology services:
    One of the greatest opportunities and challenges facing IT in higher education is the topic of sourcing: what services do we provide centrally, what services do we provide at the department level, what services do we acquire from outside partners, and what services do we expect individuals to bring to the table on their own? Inside of this one topic are a myriad of choices that can dramatically shape the IT landscape at UVa.

Facebook: Not Just for Students

  • December 4, 2008 and February 5, 2009
  • A discussion and demonstration of Facebook: what it is, why you'd want to use it, and how it works. Attendees learned how to create a profile, control privacy settings, and use many Facebook features. Hands-on help was available to those who brought along their laptops.

A “New” American University for Next-Gen Learners

A Brown Bag Lunch with Deputy CIO Mike McPherson

October 2, 2008

Discussion of a video of Adrian Sannier's keynote speech at Campus Technology's 2007 Summer conference. Dr. Sannier, the University Technology Officer at Arizona State University, is the dynamic technologist who drove ASU's rapid conversion to Google Mail, and continues to develop groundbreaking initiatives at the school. His keynote is a bracing presentation that challenges conventional notions of IT in higher education.