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 Mary Wall on June 4, 2010 at 11:15am

Hi Cathy -
Is this where we reply?
Mary Wall

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 4, 2010 at 11:18am

This is it, and you're the first one to reply! So go ahead and tell us about yourself.

Permalink Reply by Mary Wall on June 4, 2010 at 11:25am

Hi
When my college had a great buyout (including heath benefits for my spouse) I retired from a position I loved - Dean of Academic Computing and Distance Education at a community college in NJ. Both my children had moved to NC so my husband and I followed them. I now consult and design and teach for three institutions - Thomas Edison State College in NJ, U of Illinois' ION program and my former community college.

Wish there were a spell checker here and in the comments section! Any plans in the works? Luckily I have Google spell check!

Cathy - I looked at the material we are supposed to peer review next week. The link http://jcomm.oregon.edu/~tbivins/j495/Worksheet.html seems to be broken, or shouldn't I be telling that? :)

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 4, 2010 at 11:38am

You can certainly bring it up in next week's session, as that is important to note in a Peer Review Report

Permalink Reply by Laurieann Casey on June 6, 2010 at 9:19am

Hi,
I am an adjunct professor of biology at a primarily undergraduate college, the College of Saint Rose. I am also doing research as a postdoctoral fellow at Albany Medical College. I'm looking forward to becoming a peer reviewer for Merlot because it will force me to keep up-to-date with current resources for teaching. Already, our "homework" assignment has introduced me to lots of new resources and given me ideas of things to try in future classes!

Laurieann Casey

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 6, 2010 at 11:13am

I'm glad to hear that, Laurieann. Our Biology Editorial Board was one of the first ones in MERLOT. The Editor has been with MERLOT as long as I have. He will really welcome your participation as a Peer Reviewer. AND, I'm glad to hear you have already found resources. Don't forget to see the Biology Portal at: http://biology.merlot.org/

Also, doing your postdoctoral work at Albany Medical College, you might be interested in Health Sciences, too: http://healthsciences.merlot.org/, where there are a lot of medical-orented resources.

Permalink Reply by Laurieann Casey on June 6, 2010 at 3:48pm

Hi Cathy,
What a small world- I checked out the Biology editorial board and one of the members, Alan Wolfe, taught a session of a class I took on incorporating technology in the classroom when I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin!

By the way, I could not access the Business Peer Review tutorial via the link you emailed us:
http://editors.merlot.org/PeerReviewTutorial.htm

Instead, I accessed it through this link:
http://editors.merlot.org/2009Tutorial.htm

Laurieann

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 6, 2010 at 6:04pm

Alan is great! I haven't seen him for awhile but he used to come to our annual conference.

Thanks for letting us know. The direct link for it is: http://editors.merlot.org/09PRTutorial_business_part1a.swf

Permalink Reply by Fern Entrekin on June 7, 2010 at 12:18pm

Hi Laurieann,
Thank you, your tutorial link worked for me!

Fern

Permalink Reply by Fern Entrekin on June 7, 2010 at 12:00pm

Greetings Grape Camp,

I am recently retired as the technology facilitator of the largest residential K-12 school in the United States, where I designed technology curriculum and staff training. Presently, I teach online for University of Phoenix. My passion is educational technology and I have been involved in the field since 1987. I am thrilled at the resources I have found on the Merlot site and feel honored to be able to participate in Grape Camp! I look forward to learning and working with all of the participants.

Fern Entrekin

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 7, 2010 at 12:05pm

Hi, Fern, and welcome. I'm sure you will make a contribution to our Faculty Development Editorial Board with your background. I'm happy you were able to find resources on MERLOT. We're very proud that we have over almost 23,000 materials.

Permalink Reply by Clayn Lambert on June 8, 2010 at 12:01pm

Hi, everyone. My name is Clayn Lambert. I work in the General Education department at the College of Technology at Idaho State University. I am an advanced instructor and teach English, Communications, and several related subjects. In addition, I am the faculty coordinator for the department. When I am not in the classroom or working on administrative items, I also serve as the Instructional Technology Coordinator for the College.

Why, with all of these items, would I be interested in working as a peer reviewer? The reality is that technology is constantly changing our world. It changes what we teach, what we teach it with, and how we teach it to others. I view peer reviewing as a way of getting involved in the discussions that shape these issues and hopefully contribute something of value to what is happening. In addition, it gives me a chance to access this content and disseminate it to my colleagues and peers at my college and the University as a whole...