Columbia’s new online teaching and learning platform

Hi Steve,

It’s not a new site; it’s a total revision of the site for the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning; it now includes four components: CourseWorks@Columbia (online course management system), Wikispaces@Columbia (course wikis for faculty and student web publishing), Columbia on iTunes U, and the EnhancED Resource Site (a compilation of trends and findings on the internet with “in-depth explorations” related to technology and education.)

The site also include a link to VITAL (Video Interactions For Teaching and Learning), a web-based video analysis and communication system that comprises tools for editing and annotating video and for writing “multimedia essays” with text and video; it’s embedded in an online course syllabus, and housed within a community space where instructors and peers can review work published within the system and build up a personal repository of video and written content. And it has a “Podcasting and Media section” filled with resource materials on educational tools. This section is particularly well-done: each description begins with an explanation, a description of its education benefits, two “live” examples, a “Best Practice Tip,” and links to the open-source (or Columbia-licensed) tools necessary for the activity.

Finally the site includes a link to CU’s subscription to Lynda.com (the trusted educational online service that provides video-based tutorials and resources on just about every Web and software technology faculty might want to to explore.)

By the way, EnhancED–New Media Tools and Resources for Enhancing Education) has its own site (http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/enhanced/about.html)and it’s a useful resource. It was designed to “provide faculty and instructors information about new technologies and hot topics surrounding education and technology, and to share expertise about these technologies and approaches to teaching with technology.” It has a a blog-like organization of three categories of entries:

NOTED Postings highlight an interesting technology, service, or direction. Posting should have some relevance to the CU community. These posting may include: an article about a new technology, a newly published paper, or an industry change.

SOLUTIONS How-tos covering a broad range of technologies and educational approaches. Typically, entries are not hypothetical, but based on real experiences.

PRIMERS Introductory texts that cover the basic elements of a subject. Beyond the topic of technology itself, these entries include educational considerations, explanatory tips, and a discussion of potential trends.

All in all, the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning a very impressive resource for faculty.

I used VITAL in a math ed class I took at Teachers College, Columbia. We were sort of piloting parts of it. We used it to analyze videos of kids learning math. We submitted papers with embedded video clips to illustrate points. Pretty cool.