Moving over here now

More tools to try!

I've used Blogger before, for a personal blog when I was first teaching--but I haven't developed a webpage on the platform. My plan: track my preparation steps for the portfolio in the blogging format, and finalize a single webpage that synthesizes what I've done. This makes sense for sharing my work with my colleagues, as I can share the single page and link to blog entries for more detail as needed. I decided to move here rather than keeping all my development materials in StoryMapJS/ThingLink for several reasons--

• Like slide formats, I think my story map was getting out of hand even at this stage: there was so much clicking that I think I would have lost readers. Since I'm moving to ThingLink, this would be even more challenging, as I lose the linear flow of a slide format. 
• Using a basic webpage like this one will allow me to build a hypertext evaluation document including an embedded StoryMap or ThingLink and any other tools, so I can still highlight the benefits of narrative cartography. 
• It links seamlessly with my Google account, which allows me to host necessary images and text files all in one place. 
• This associated blog will let me less formally track my process for the benefit of my own metacognition.

Specifics on my SMJS problems: I finally figured out how to use the Zoomify free option, but the output has to be hosted on a web server; Google Drive used to work as an alternative, but its most recent updates disallowed that feature. I plan to keep experimenting with its use for student projects, but I no longer think it will work for an interactive syllabus--which I will instead begin to build on ThingLink.

On Infographic tool selection: the major frustration I experienced here was the lack of keyboard shortcuts; I looked up a few guides and some of them just don't seem to work. For instance, I couldn't get items to group, so I had to adjust spacing one object at a time, which in turn meant I had to overly rely on eyeballing spatial relationships. The perfectionist side of me hates this.

This week, I'm hitting information overload after reading about infographic construction, vetting potential platforms, and trying to solve the problems I encountered last week. After several false hopes and even more frustrations, I'm going to have to abandon StoryMapJS for ThingLink--at least until they solve the problems resulting from Google Drives recent updates. I still think SMJS will work for student assignments using maps, but for most of my classes I need to incorporate historical imagery, and it's easier to do so in ThingLink. I suspect, really, that I will continue to develop both.

I also wanted to further investigate the role of mobile technologies in blended and online learning. While this was not its own topic in Modules 2 and 3, it appeared in conjunction with our more focused discussion and learning content. Because I have a working relationship with several members of The Institute for Teaching and Learning (TILT) at CSU, I know that at least one of our instructional designers has actually quit over the lack of support for mobile development (especially in technological resources dedicated to the mobile version of Canvas). My conclusions after research are somewhat broad: there's a lot of evidence that shows students expect and want mobile access at least as an option--and just as much evidence that there are serious drawbacks to providing it.

Mobile devices in blended and online delivery by Sharon Grindle>Sharon Grindle

Note on the blog name: this is one of Dogberry's malapropisms from Much Ado About Nothing; in 3.iii he's evaluating the capacity of the watchmen to do their jobs, and I felt drawn to this juxtaposition this week while I was struggling through deciding on a final tool. I think I'm pretty comfortable with learning new tools, but spending hours reading about making SMJS work only to finally find the update in their own FAQ about GDrive no longer working made me rethink my own savvy.