Attention UW-Bothell students interested in computer programming and interactive media: here is an interesting event worth checking out!

At CodeDay, hosted by local non-profit StudentRND, students group up in competitive teams to be the best coders. With only 24 hours, everyone works vigorously and passionately to design and develop a new, functioning script from scratch.

In this environment of little more than fresh pizza and donuts, whizzing computers, fellow programmers and a lot of innovative energy, age and experience level become irrelevant. In the last Seattle event, the youngest participants were only 14-years old, yet they competed just as well against their high school and college peers. Displaying a wide range of talents and technologies—from coding to graphics design to audio composition and from websites to mobile apps to offline games—the final presentations and awards ceremony mark the long, but meaningful and exciting day’s end.

For the full article by KING 5 about the previous CodeDay event, please click here.

For more information on the Bellevue CodeDay Classic event (Apr 6-Apr 7), please click here.

For more information on the next Seattle CodeDay event (May 25-May 26), please click here.

Stephanie Delaney, the director of eLearning at Cascadia Community College, gave a presentation last Wednesday about web 2.0 tools and the legal considerations faculty members should take while using them. The presentation is fantastic and is available in full through Tegrity here. Topics she covers include FERPA, student privacy and faculty responsibility. Here’s a sneak peek at the helpful advice Delaney offers:

• Students shouldn’t be forced to post personal information on the internet and should be presented with privacy options when using Web 2.0 tools in education. For example, if making a Twitter account is part of a project, students uncomfortable with using their real name should have options like making the account under a pseudonym or opting out of that portion of the project.

• Faculty and staff should understand that their activity online will be tied to the institution as long as they work there. Exercise caution online and remain professional.

• Although many institutions don’t include a social networking policy for faculty in their contracts, act as if they do. Many instructors have found themselves in trouble at work because of what they have posted on their private Twitter/Facebook/Blog.

• Address issues to your students that can come up while using web 2.0 tools, such as cyber bullying and stalking, on the first day of class. If you teach students what this looks like from the start, they are more likely to be responsible online.

• Keep track of all of the work done on web 2.0 tools that you may, for any reason, need later. Think proof of a student’s grade or a lawsuit.

• Nothing is private. Things you post on the internet will be there forever.

You must use web 2.0 tools carefully in the academic world, but don’t let this discourage you from using them at all. Web 2.0 tools have potential to make class more interactive, personal, and may help students with their technology and social networking skills in the future. The bottom line for this presentation is that while using web 2.0 tools, be responsible and think before you post anything.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, the Educause Learning Initiative Annual Meeting is a conference that meets every year to discuss technology, teaching and learning in the upcoming year. The 2011 meeting took place on February 14-16 in both Washington D.C. and around the world online. The focus was heavily on open education–covering topics such as open resources, open textbooks, open curriculum, etc. If you missed out this year, good news: The sessions are currently available online and can be accessed here. If you don’t know where to start, here are some of our favorite sessions from the meeting:

• Using Technology to Engage Students by Eric Mazur, Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics and Dean of Applied Physics, Harvard University (you can use the slider at the bottom of the screen to move to the presentation which starts at about the 21st minute of the recording). Dr. Mazur talks about using clickers to significantly increase student learning.

• Gathering Evidence to Make an Impact: How Less Can Be More by Thomas Angelo, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Director, Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Centre, La Trobe University and author of Classroom Assessment Techniques.

• Blended Learning Designs: A Learning Science Perspective by Barbara Means, Director, Center for Technology in Learning, SRI International. Dr. Means presents some of the most comprehensive research done to date on blended/hybrid learning, and how this mode of learning shows statistically significant enhanced learning outcomes as compared to face-to-face instruction.