Web and Device Collaboration Workshops

Intro Courses 

Animate your own Avatar with XtraNormal
The use of animation and avatars has been becoming very popular in education. Why not greet your online students with a fun animated avatar instead of a boring text? Creating custom animations has never been easier. Xtranormal (http://www.xtranormal.com/) allows you to quickly and easily convert text to sophisticated animations. If you can type, you can make movies. This introductory workshop will get you started.
 
Clickers in Your Classroom
TurningPoint’s audience response system uses personal clickers to allow students to participate in presentations or lectures by submitting responses to interactive questions.  Then, the entire class can immediately view the responses graphed out in interactive charts.  In this workshop, learn how to use clickers to engage your students in lectures, or quiz them before a test. Use them as an integration within PowerPoint, or use it outside of PowerPoint — with Macs or PCs.  
 
Google Galore (3-Week Course)
We all know it – Google is king of the online world.  Web collaboration and synchronization have become powerful and intuitive thanks to all of Google’s online tools.  In this hands-on workshop, you’ll dig deep into advanced Google searching techniques, as well as learn all of the in’s and out’s of Google Docs, Google Calendar and Google Reader. There are no stipends associated with this workshop.
 
E-Publishing for Mobile Devices
This two session workshop examines tools used to create electronic publications and methods of distribution. We explain how to create e-pub documents from programs including MS Word, Apple’s Pages, Adobe Acrobat and InDesign. Lastly, we review and demonstrate the different options for distribution and/or publishing your documents or books either directly via the web or through online bookstores..

Intro to Google Docs
Have you ever tried to work on the same Word document with multiple people? If you have, then you know the challenges you face with keeping track of multiple versions, overwriting each other's data, emailing the document back and forth, and so on. Google Docs presents a great solution. Simply create a free Google account and use Google Docs to keep your document "in the cloud" and invite people to collaborate. Learn how in this workshop.

Intro to Hype
NEW! Have you ever wanted to create beautiful animated or interactive web content but didn’t have the time to take on the professional programs built for developers? In this Introduction to Hype, we will look at an application that allows users to design interactive and animated web content visually in a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) interface. Hype creates the code and outputs HTML5, CSS3 styles and Javascript automatically, freeing you from any hard coding. Hype is a Mac only application and is currently available on the Mac App store.

Intro to RSS and Google Reader
Forget about the daily checks of your favorite websites, news sources and blogs — instead, make the most updated material come to you!  In this workshop, learn how to unleash the power of RSS, which will allow you to subscribe to your favorite sites using Google Reader, the most popular RSS aggregator.  Not only that — but learn how to organize, tag, and publish articles from your feeds using the power of Google Reader.

Ultimate Google Searching
NEW!  Sure, you know how to perform Google searches — everyone does.  But do you know the secret language of Google searching, which can help narrow down your search criteria dramatically?  Take this workshop to become more in tune than ever with efficient, effective searching mechanisms that can assist you get exactly the information you want.

Using Facebook in the Classroom
Instructors -- did you know that more than 80% of undergraduate students use Facebook? Find out how to design a rich online course that will become integrated within students' already-existing routine. This workshop is designed for instructors who want to build an online course in Facebook using Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, educational apps, as well as Columbia's own Facebook app (which integrates into faculty and students' course schedules). We will explore how to create and build different types of courses with different types of learning and organization tools, as well as explore privacy issues and solutions.

Using the iPad in the Classroom
This workshop is designed for instructors who want to use the iPad as a robust learning tool in the classroom.  Whether you’re looking to use the iPad as an extension of your own computer to share and project course materials and presentations, or if you want to use any of the many iPad and iTunes educational applications, we will show you the best way to integrate this very powerful tool into your daily classroom activities.

Working with Wikis
Ever wonder how a site like Wikipedia is created and maintained?   Wikipedia is a wiki, which is a type of editable website enabling many users to add or edit content.  Wikis are easy to set up and can be used for a variety of collaborative projects in the classroom. Take this workshop to learn how to unleash the power of wikis using WikiSpaces.