Putting Educational Innovations into Practice.

June 2010 GRAPE Camp

Hi, Everyone:

Please take this opportunity to introduce yourself and tell us a little about yourself. We have a lot of people who are doing GRAPE Camp asynchronously, so it will also help them feel part of the group.

So, tell us who you are, what you teach, why you're enrolled in GRAPE Camp, your thoughts about MERLOT, and anything else you want to say.

If you've got spare time, you can also view comments from people in other GRAPE Camps - i.e. Click on Back to GRAPE Camp.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 8, 2010 at 12:21pm

Hi, Clayn: That's great to hear about the English focus as we do have an Editorial Board and they have just begun reviewing materials. You can a hit l ist of the 499 English materials in the MERLOT collection at: http://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?category=2426&&s... The top-level categories are Literature and Language, and there are sub-topics under each of those.

You seem to have a firm grasp on the value of peer reviewing. Glad to see that!

Permalink Reply by Pat Donohue on June 9, 2010 at 2:29pm

Hello everyone,
Glad to join such a prestigious group of educators! Instead of retiring, I went back for my doctorate in Communication and Information Sciences only to return home to California and teach at San Francisco State University for one year when our economy tanked. So I grabbed the opportunity to do what I've wanted to do - put my years of online science education and teacher professional development into a real-time "boot camp" where teachers and students can learn and use today's media tools for learning on-demand. I'm also hoping to do some new research in educational social media. Merlot is an excellent resource.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 10, 2010 at 9:05am

Welcome, Pat. And kudos to you for taking on a doctoral program rather than retiring!!! I'm hoping you will use examples from MERLOT in your boot camp. Glad to have you in GRAPE Camp

Permalink Reply by Alpesh P. Makwana on June 10, 2010 at 6:00am

Greetings Everyone,

My name is Alpesh, and I work as Instructional System Designer/Developer at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). I have earned a PhD in Modeling and Simulation from the University of Central Florida (UCF), Orlando, in December 2009. My academic background is Computer Science from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India. Currently at FAA, in the department of Center for Management and Executive Leadership, I am creating instructional material to design and develop blended training to create effective work environment for Managers in FAA. I have joined GRAPE to learn more about my field of e-learning and how to effectively review material using various strategies. I am a proponent of open source and open knowledge, and MERLOT is a great place for sharing and exchanging information. I am interested in contributing my knowledge and make MERLOT available to more and more people who are in need of learning or teaching material.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 10, 2010 at 8:55am

Welcome, Alpesh. In addition to the information we have in the Faculty Development area(http://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?category=2295&&s...),
you will find information about management issues such as motivation, groups, etc. in the Management collection in Business, with the following topics: Conflict Resolution (6)
Entrepreneurship (58)
Ethics (73)
Human Resources (187)
International (20)
Org Behavior and Development (109)
Production and Oper Mgnt (61)
Project Management (9)
Strategy (66)

Lots to choose from!

Permalink Reply by Bryan Kopp on June 10, 2010 at 8:34am

It is a pleasure to meet everyone. I'm the Writing Programs Coordinator and an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. In the first capacity, I work as a faculty developer for the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning. Merlot is an ideal way to share, review and recognize the work of teachers across the disciplines, and I am thrilled that Carnegie's KEEP Toolkit has been incorporated into Merlot's Content Builder, which I would like to see our campus using to document teaching improvement activities as well as the scholarship of teaching and learning. I have a special interest in developing a collection (or knowledge base) of assignments and activities for teachers of writing-intensive courses. In the English department, I teach undergraduate courses in rhetoric, writing, theory and literature.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 10, 2010 at 9:02am

Hi, Bryan:
Welcome! I know that we can really use your help on the English Editorial Board. It just got started last year, so there are lots of materials to review.

Do you know Scott Cooper? He is Co-Editor of the Biology Editorial Board and teaches at La Crosse.

I'm glad to hear you recognize the Content Builder (KEEP Toolkit). This is a new initiative of ours and is the first time that we are hosting materials on MERLOLT. It's a great way to create your own learning materials, too, as it creates a website for you and enables you to also catalog it in MERLOT. I'm using it to create a module for those who take GRAPE Camp asynchronously. We have some brand new videos on YouTube that work through these steps: http://www.youtube.com/user/MERLOTPlace#g/c/86D965F5E8B80044 It's very easy to follow (and fun to do!)

Permalink Reply by Bryan Kopp on June 10, 2010 at 9:18am

Scott is a great colleague--it was nice to see him featured in the video you sent earlier. MERLOT has already made several important upgrades to the old KEEP Toolkit, and the new Content Builder videos will be most appreciated. I hope I have a chance to work with the faculty development editorial board at some point as well as English. Thanks again for the informative session today.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 10, 2010 at 9:41am

I forgot about him being in the video! The choice of Editorial Board is up to you. We do have people working on two boards, so you might want to consider trying one first and then the other. It's really best to only be on one, as they operate differently. But, we want you to be happy, so we're flexible.

Permalink Reply by Bryan Kopp on June 10, 2010 at 10:09am

It is probably common for people to belong, in practice, to more than one disciplinary community, but I agree that it is best to start with one editorial board. Although I have a split appointment at my institution, I have spent many years in English studies and look forward to reviewing materials in this area.

Permalink Reply by Eileen Stec on June 10, 2010 at 11:59am

Hi everyone. I am a former psychiatric social worker who changed careers and became an academic librarian. I have been an instruction and outreach librarian at Rutgers University for the past 10 years--it went very fast. After Library School I enrolled in a Masters Program in Instructional Design and Technology. I couldn't commute to the last 9 credits, so I packed it in and took a certificate. Instructional design, teaching and multimedia remain my primary focus, though we still do old fashioned reference service and some new-fangled digital reference. My teaching revolves primarily around other faculty's courses; I teach one or two sessions, create learning materials and keep trying to insinuate information literacy into the curriculum.
I look forward to peer-reviewing as a way to make sure I keep up in my field, learn new ideas and techniques as well as help people get recognition for their work.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 10, 2010 at 4:37pm

Wow, Eileen, what an interesting background. I'm sure the Faculty Development Editorial Board would work out for you. We're happy to have you.