PBCC Pod Casting

Check out PBCC's venture into PodCasting. Palm Beach Post article

PDF Online

This site has been so helpful. I've been able to convert lab handouts and worksheets to pdf files so I can upload them onto the English tutor website. PDF Online is free, and will convert most documents into a pdf file in a matter of seconds. It also has its own blog. See PDF online blog. Check it out. You won't be disappointed.

AskOnline IV

I visited the off-campus sites last night, so next week I'm hoping to have a lot of hits on the site. I presented the online tutoring program to the Provost's Management Team on Friday and organized an intense marketing campaign for the campus. I received positive feedback from both our campus and the main campus. Now it's time for the real test - student response.

PTLC co-chair 2

Well, I finally rounded up enough people to be on this committee. Now I just need to find a time when we can all meet. Some members are adjuncts who work in the evening and have long commutes, others are full-time instructors who work during the day. I want to have everyone. The more disciplines involved on the committe, the better the Center will be. As much as I would love to have an "English Teachers Only!" sign posted on the door, I know the instructors at our campus need to have as many resources available to them as possible. We are so far from the main campus, that it's extremely inconvenient to take advantage of the resources there. My mission in this is to make it unnecessary to use those resources.

PTLC co-chair

I've just been made the co-chair of our campus's Professional Teaching and Learning Center. The PTLC provides our faculty with a place to share teaching and learning-related information; to provide access to current research in effective teaching practices, the science of learning, instructional design, and instructional technology; to provide support and added value for faculty and staff professional development initiatives; and to provide ongoing assessment of effectiveness. (Taken straight from the PTLC objectives.) It seems like it will be a great asset to our campus. Most of our faculty consists of adjuncts who don't have much connection with each other. I think this will be a great place to discuss new techniques and to learn from each other, as well as a place to relax.

PantherTrail II

I recently had to compile a report of our lab's activity. That was an interesting exercise in futility for various reasons. As I have previously mentioned, we have switched from Accutrack, which seemed to crash daily, to PantherTrail as a more accurate means of record keeping. Most of our Accutrack data was lost, so I had to do a lot of estimating of this past summer's data. PantherTrail is so new, the report aspect of the system has not been ironed out. I have these records in PantherTrail that change everytime I look at the report. Needless to say, I don't think this report will be extremely accurate. I know I can't use it to request any sort of funding. The irony of all this is that I'm working in a computer lab, but requiring my tutors to keep paper records because the computer is unreliable.

Lesson Builder

Yesterday, I went to a class on Lesson Builder software put out by soft chalk. It looks fun and very easy. I might try to do something like that for my classes next semester. I also want to incorporate a WebCT component. Both of my classes are night classes, and those students don't usually have a lot of time to come to the lab. They still need the extra practice and the instruction that the lab provides, so I'm trying to see if there is a way to handle that. The Lesson Builder software is supposedly located on a couple of computers here. I'll have to see if I can have it put on my computer. Check out the demos on the web site. They're pretty nice.

Ingenuix II

The session was great, and Ingenuix gives us a lot of options. I'm so excited about using it, but I don't have any time! I took on three prep English courses as an adjunct and added 9-12 hours to my work week. Next semester, I'm signed up for 2 classes and 1 might not make, so I hope I'll have more time. The site is up for loading information, but it probably won't go live until spring. We were also given an Ingenuix playground to learn the new system and try out new things. I haven't done much in it, though.

PantherTrail

Our new student tracking system changed from PantherTrac to PantherTrail since some college publication had the same name. As always, when you start something new, there are a few difficulties to overcome. Since whoever operates PantherTrail will have access to student information such as picture, student ID, and current schedule, all the tutors and learning specialists had to receive security clearance. Everyone had to retake the FERPA training (some of us had to take it several times for some reason) and get cleared by several people. That took several weeks. We had a few initial obstacles with the card scanners, as well. The system now works fine, and students are used to signing in with their PantherCards. The reports are the current obstacle. We print reports for various reasons: to show students their lab hours, to see our peak times, to note participation in various events, to track student progress, etc. The reports are currently done in excel, and are very confusing. The old Accutrack gave a lot of hassle at the front end, but the reports were nice and easy. I definitely can't say the same for these. Hopefully, a better system will emerge. It took me half the day to print reports for one math class. I'm not prepared to invest that much time in printing reports for every prep class scheduled.

Ask Online III

The online tutoring component for our lab has really flopped. I still believe this has a lot of potential, though. I attribute the failure of this program mainly to the "marketing" I haven't done. I tried to target classes given out at the high schools for students who don't actually come to the lab at all. While that idea worked in theory, it was hard to implement. I relied on an instructor to relay the information to the students. Since the instructor doesn't know much about the online tutoring, he was not able to promote it very well. Only a couple of students signed up, and I just couldn't see having a tutor wait online for a couple hours each week for three students who may never use the program anyway. Last summer I had 20 some signed up, and none of them used it either. I will continue to think of new ways to promote the online tutoring.

Igeniux

New web content management system for the college. I'm going tomorrow for training. So far my web space looks pretty basic. I was told that this new system will allow us to personalize the pages and make a lot more modifications than our current system does. We'll see.

Web Space

The webmaster showed me how to upload pdf files to the website today. This will be very useful for posting handouts. Oddly, the only thing that I'm putting off is taking pictures for the site. I don't know what type of pictures to take. All I can think of is a student in front of a computer for everything. Honestly, that's what will probably take me the longest. I'll obviously have to do it sometime this summer, though. I plan to have the site up and running before fall. I have 9 interested Comp I students for AskOnline. This evening I'll find out about Comp II students.

Learn to Write

The web-based software Learn to Write has a lot to offer. Combine Comment with Exercise Central and you have a general idea of what it's like. It seems just slightly easier to maneuver than those other two softwares, though. I'm thinking about it. If I went with this, it would be silly to use AskOnline as well. The thing about AskOnline is that it is so userfriendly and can be used for all subjects. I start the pilot program with AskOnline tomorrow. Once again, the more features added to the program, the more complicated it becomes for the student. Occasionally I feel bogged down by all the technological wonders available to me. Am I letting my obsessions with gadgetry get in the way of the real purpose - to assist students in their subject matter? I wonder if sometimes all this extra stuff just gets in the way. The thing is we live in a technological age, and students pursuing an education should receive a full education that familiarizes them with technology. But how much is necessary, convenient, or beneficial?  

New Stuff

A couple of reps have contacted me. I already wrote about Grammar Sense. Another rep contacted me about some reading software that I should be receiving soon: Learning 100 and Access 21st Century. Another Learning Specialist is promoting Learning to Write. I requested an access code to try out the demo.

My Skills Lab/Reading Road Trip

I have some unpredicted obstacles with this program:

1. Apparently I need to have a lot of faculty support for the reps to bother molding this program to my needs. I know some faculty members are not very fond of the program because of the hassle it has given us in the past. I'm going to have to convince them that this will help us conquer those past problems.
2. The reading instructor I have the most contact with has decided she does not like this program at all. She wants to go in an entirely new direction which means I'm going to have to redo lab assignments for her. She wants each student to have an individualized program to address his/her specific needs. While that would be ideal, I don't know if that is feasible. I'll do my best, but, ironically, I think my solution will be to modify Reading Road Trip.

Catch 22.

TutorTrac/PantherTrac

Oops! Next time I better read the overview. I was misinformed about this program. It is not for online tutoring; it is for tracking lab activity. Since I am part of a committee designing the PantherTrac (Accutrack replacement) program to do exactly that, I have no need for TutorTrac.

TechXplore III

It seems like all the bugs have been worked out of the program. The speech class met again today. They adjusted the mic settings on the computer, and they all seem to be working fine. That's the fun part about computers. Troubleshooting. Troubleshooting is just like it sounds - shoot from the hip until you find the right answer.

AskOnline II

I contacted two comp instructors about allowing me to pilot this program in their classes. One instructor has responded very positively about Ask Online, but the other is putting me off a bit. We'll see if he goes for it. I received 14 licenses and my administrator's code. While I'm excited about starting this, I'm not making any decisions until I check out some other options. I have an appointment with TutorTrac on 6/21 to go through a demo with one of their reps. I've definitely decided against Comment, but it had some things I definitely liked that I plan to ask for. Apparently we are supposed to be able to work closely with Ask Online to mold the program to our needs.

Grammar Sense

The EAP cluster is looking into a new ESOL series. Grammar Sense is a program that specifically targets ESOL students. We used to use Focus on Grammar, but it's very outdated. It's so bad, that recently after starting here, the disks were unusable. An instructor is looking at using the Grammar Sense books with the new Houghton Mifflin series that is currently being piloted. We'll see what we do. I figured the software should be mentioned here, however. It is brand new and not quite finished yet which has made a couple of people a little nervous about purchasing it. The new texts probably won't be in place until fall 2006 anyway, so I think there's plenty of time.

AskOnline I

As I have previously written, I've acquired web space to start an online English and reading lab with online tutoring being a main focus. I've looked into Comment, and decided it is not appropriate for my needs. The math lab on another campus is using AskOnline. This medium is supposedly appropriate for all forms of tutoring. I was originally under the assumption that it was geared toward math. I've contacted the math lab and have a meeting with a learning specialist over there tomorrow. I've looked at it a little bit, and I think it might suit my needs.