Welcome to the Teaching and Learning Center

Welcome to the
Teaching and Learning Center
At the
University of New Mexico Valencia

By Philip Leimbach, MCT



Things are changing again at the T&LC. Last October we were awarded a new Title V grant from the US Department of Education. This new grant is a Co-Op with New Mexico State University Grants in Grants, New Mexico. The scope of this grant is primarily two fold. First, it is set to help us reach more students via online teaching initiatives. Second, the grant is designated to help us start a Game Design and Simulation degree program. The new grant also meant we added new people to the department.

Online Teaching Initiatives are designed to increase our campuses online visibility with not only an increase in online classes but also an online advisor and online senior tutor. By increasing our online class offering, we are making a dedicated effort to bring a high degree of quality instruction to our students. While this might not be easy for the students at first, the program should arm the instructors with knowledge to overcome many of the obstacles that our lower income students face. With the new online advisor and tutor, the students will have even more tools to excel in the world of higher education.

Our program manager Dr. Najib Manea who is using his Masters in Computer Science is heading the Game Design and Simulation degree program. With the help of the Digital Media Arts program Dr. Manea is trying to design a program that will not only prepare students for jobs in the exciting field of game design but will also give the students a firm foothold in achieving higher academic success once they have finished their Associates Degree. With plans to give the students both strong backgrounds in Game Art and Game Programming, the hope is that our students will provide future employers with a top quality employee.

We have added many new names to the Teaching and Learning Center. Besides Dr. Najib Manea and Philip Leimbach, MCT we have added Jennifer Abers as our Program Coordinator, Maisie Baca as the Online/Dual-Credit Advisor and Anthony Liu as our new User Support Analyst II. However, we are waiting to add more including a new Online Tutor and a Game Design and Simulation Faculty member. We hope they are in place before the end of this school year.

So as the Teaching and Learning Center at the University of New Mexico Valencia continues to grow, we hope you like the changes and that the changes we implement lead to a higher quality of education.

Welcome to a new decade.

Welcome back to a new decade and the start of the Spring 2010 semester! We hope you like some of the changes we've made, in part with help from the STEM grant.

Classroom/Lecture Capture - We have installed 31 Classrooms with Lecture Capture devices, called Media Site this product is from Sonic Foundry. These classrooms have been setup with stationary cameras and microphones. All you have to do is setup a schedule with the Teaching and Learning Center and teach like normal. In addition we have 3 rooms on campus which have stationary cameras and microphones but are setup for mobile capture devices. This is a great tool to help your students study and we at the TLC are more than happy to get you started.

Podiums - 9 Classrooms now have new podiums. We have installed (we feel) easier to use podiums in rooms that had limited instructor areas before. The new podiums were installed in 2 science labs in the Academics building and the remainder where installed in the numerous Computer Classrooms in the Business, Occupational and Technologies Building. These podiums match what we had previously installed in the Vocational and Technical Building.

New Projectors - With all of the technology upgrades going on we were also to install and add new projectors to some rooms. This will really help the campus in the future as we have streamlined our makes and models of projectors to just a few. Additionally the new projectors are much more energy conscious than the projectors they replaced and the bulbs should last twice as long. Wow, a little more green and much more cost effective, what more could you ask for?

New Document Camera - Yes, we had to replace some of the old Canon and Elmo Document cameras. We chose a brand called AverMedia. Most of the AverMedia Document Camera have a much smaller foot print and will be less intrusive into the teaching area while still delivering a high content Doc. Camera.

Online Learning Platform - The Teaching and Learning Center is aggressively working on an Online Teaching Certificate for current faculty. With Dr. Najib Manea, PhD working on theory and design, Philip Leimbach, MCT is working on applications and tools. Call us today to find out more 505-925-8556

We hope you all have a great semester! If you have any problems please do not hesitate in calling us 925-8556

Have You signed up for your Teaching and Learning Center Classes yet? Here is the schedule so find something you might like and email us at tlc@unm.edu and we will get you scheduled.

Dates Semester Kickoff Classes Time
01/12/10 Web CT 9-11am
01/12/10 Using Smart Boards & Sympodiums 11-12pm
01/12/10 Clickers 12-2pm
01/13/10 Groupwise 9-10am
01/13/10 Classroom Capture Refresher 11-12pm
01/13/10 Groupwise 3:30-4:30pm
01/14/10 Clickers 9-11am
01/14/10 Using Smart Boards & Sympodiums 11-12pm
01/14/10 Web CT 12-2pm
Dates Online Learning Courses Thursdays
Jan 18 - Feb 19 Beginning Online Instruction 12-2pm
Feb 22 - Apr 2 Design & Development of Online Courses 12-2pm
Apr 5 - May 7 Online Instruction Assessment 12-2pm
Dates Skill Developmental Classes Mondays
1/25 - 2/22 Microsoft Word 2007 Level 1 12-2pm
3/1 - 3/22 Microsoft Power Point 2007 Level 1 12-2pm
3/29 - 4/26 Beginning Web Design (NOT Dreamweaver) 12-2pm
Dates Bring Your Lunch and Learn Tue & Wen
Jan 26 & 27 Using Lecture Capture for Class Success 12-1pm
Feb 2 & 3 Blogs in the Classroom 12-1pm
Mar 2 & 3 Portfolio Building Blocks 12-1pm
Apr 6 & 7 Introduction to Digital Communications 12-1pm
May 4 & 5 Introduction to Camtasia 12-1pm

Schedule your Classes for Lecture Capture

With school starting in just over a week now is the time to schedule your classes for lecture capture. Give your students one more important and easy tool to use when studying. Here is all you do:

Email the following information to tlc@unm.edu

1. Your Name
2. Your Email
3. Class with section #
4. Start time and day (ex. Mon. & Wed 11:30-12:45) NOTE: this is what time your recordings will start and stop, if you need to adjust your times slightly please list those times (ex. 11:40-12:45)

We will schedule your classes, set up a media catalog for each course which will have a URL that you can paste in WebCT or on your website and we’re off to the races.

TLC Classes Nearing End of Semester

The Teaching and Learning Center classes are nearing the end of the semester. Next Tuesday myself and Najib will be in Albuquerque for a full days worth of Microsoft training. Najib will also be out of the office the last week of the month. He will be at a Sonic Foundry seminar learning more about our Media Site systems. The Media Site Systems are staged and should be live before the summer semester starts.

In topics classes on the Podcasting class remains. It will be held next Monday (4/20/09) only!

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 is still in full swing, however the Outlook 2007 class has been canceled. Currently it is under discussion whether or not we will have summer Microsoft classes. If you really need them let us know.

Reminder Photoshop CS3 does not end until May 7th. We will be upgrading our Adobe suite after that class.

Only three Seminar classes remain, they are: Adobe Connect, Web CT and Developing an Online Class. Have you completed these classes yet?

Lastly, OSET will be on campus April 30th to do some training. Get with Jami Huntsinger if your interested in more information.

The Death Defying Adventures of Philip the huh?

So September 7th was a big day for me and I didn't even know it!

I had to do some maintenance on our new Media Site Server on 9/7 and then I was suppose to have brought back or stationary classroom capture systems. So I go along, do what I can to the server, load up the dolly to take the new capture systems out to the car. So far so average!

Well when I walk out to my surprise there are no cars in the parking area. Especially MINE! Well now I would have thought it had been stolen if all of the other cars had not been missing. Come to find out all vehicles had been moved pending the arrival of Mrs. Obama later that evening. So now the hunt was on, where was my University Vehicle (just glad it wasn't my own truck, read on and you will understand) had it been towed or what?

So the I am told by Media Technology to go to the "SUB" administration and ask a particular individual. Well he was in a meeting because obviously this is a huge day on campus. So I speak with his assistant. She was under the impression that all vehicles had been moved to the main campus parking structure. Since it is just a short jaunt over to the parking structure I stroll over, climb the stairs to the top and begin my decent. Guess what, no car! Well there is a parking area just across the street (right on route 66) so I cruise it, still NO car! Well now isn't this interesting?

I find someone from parking services. He says that all cars that they moved were moved to the UNM Hospital garage across campus. OK, no worries I walk over to the UNMH garage walk up one side and down the other and guess what, yep NO CAR! OK now my 320 pounds of out of shape being is wearing my energy down.

So I call back to the "SUB" administration. They call automotive services who had brought over spare keys to move the car. Come to find out it was in their lot. No problem, at least now I know where it is located. After I walked back across campus. A gentleman from automotive services comes to pick me up and takes me to the car. Thought the adventure had come to a close I did learn somethings.

One, give my pager number to the girls at the front desk here on campus, because while my cell phone may not work underground, my pager does! Because guess who knew my car had been moved and had a phone number for me to call to get it back?

Two, watch something on the news other than the weather. I could have taken care of all of this at another date.

Three, the secret service keeps their dogs in good shape, bomb dogs that is.

Four, Philip keeps himself in bad shape. Round just is not good for tracing around campus.

Five, DO NOT believe the media. They say Obama supporters are all young and vibrant. yeah right if 80 is young and vibrant!

And last but not least it is not polite to tell them older ladies what you really think of the two candidates when your asked for the 6th time if you are registered to vote!

ps. oh yeah if in Albuquerque, Golden Pride Ribs are not bad for lunch.

Media Site

Well we tried out our Media Site mobile systems. Worked great except for some funny reason between the office and the classroom I didn't get the Microphone hooked up correctly so I lost audio on the capture. Oh well better luck next time.

New People Stuff

New Student Orientation. New Faculty Orientation. Convocation. Being new to a first semester I am learning there is barely enough time to take a breath let alone stay caught up with everyone's demands!

Preparing for New Classroom Capture System

As we prepare for our new classroom Capture System from Media Site. There are a few things that have become apparent. Number 1, is that Universities still like to kill trees. Number 2, is don't be in a hurry. The more of a hurry you are in the slower the process, something along the lines of watching a pot boil! Number 3, companies who deal with universities play things so close to the vest and have no concept of outside operations that they have a hard time communicating procedures!

So while we are trying to get our static IP addresses in (thanks Vista!) I also have to map out a plan of how to build a Win Server 2003 Enterprise, Install the Capture Systems which have not arrived, get this done at a remote campus over 2 hours away, make it to the install and training sessions at our main campus AND still get stuff done for new faculty orientations. All while trying to figure out a test for our student employees!

Then again it could just be me!

When all else fails

page yourself!

Finals Time

Well UNMVC's finals are this week. Good luck to all! We will see most of you the week of the 18th for student and faculty orientations!

Some of the things we're looking at for this August:

• Classroom Capture to be installed - Should be ready by mid-semester.
• Using Clickers in Art History - Thanks Michael.
• Classroom readiness, making sure that all classrooms are ready for the Fall.
• Test servers in place, we will be using them to test Moodle and other such tools.

See you all in a few weeks!

Workshops are ready are you?

We have new and exciting workshops ready for the Fall Semester. These will be one hour sessions designed to inform and excite you about the new technologies being used in classrooms all over the world.

Here is a list of some of the new workshops, Valencia Campus Faculty and Staff check us out online to sign up:

• Introduction to Web Design (Get ready for Dreamweaver)
• Web 2.0 (Beyond the pretty buttons)
• Blogging
• Wiki's 101
• Twitter - An Introduction
• Podcasting
• VODCasting
• Google Docs
  

It could be worse

You could be flipping hamburgers down at KFC.

Adobe CS3 now at the TLC

Starting in the Fall 2008 semester we will be introducing classes in Adobe CS3. Hope you all are ready to learn something new and exciting!