Jim Groom, director of teaching and learning technologies, is featured in the November 2011 newsletter of Educause. The newsletter, “7 Things You Should Know About MOOCs,” mentions Groom’s leadership with the “Digital Storytelling” course. Read the full article.
Jim Groom Featured in Educause Newsletter
November 10, 2011 by
Jim Groom on Tour!
November 1, 2011 by
Jim Groom, director of the Division for Teaching and Learning Technologies, recently invited to present at Baruch College’s Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute about innovative pedagogies in regards to the Digital Storytelling course (ds106) he teaches. He was also invited back to Baruch the following week to join a panel about the possibilities of DIY, web-based radio and teaching and learning.
On October 27th Jim Groom presented a well-received keynote at the Open Education Conference that focused on re-focusing the emphasis of the open education movement from resources to experiences titled “#occupyopened11”. The presentation included some drama around “occupying the open education” movement, complete with a tent and a ruffled looking presenter. See the full presentation here:
Additionally, Jim Groom has upcoming keynote presentations at the North West Academic Computing Consortium
on November 3rd and a keynote presentation for the K12 Online Conference at the end of November.
Derecki, Grymala and Groom Present at edUi Conference
October 27, 2011 by
Cathy Finn-Derecki, Curtiss Grymala, and Jim Groom — UMW’s web team and UMW Blogs architect — gave a presentation on the philosophical and strategic drivers behind the new UMW Web site on October 15, 2011 at the 3rd annual edUi Conference in Richmond. The presentation, entitled “University Web Site to University Web Life” talked about how the new system paves the way for a growing integration between the external image of the University and its real-time academic activities online. Also presented were the specific WordPress tools developed exclusively at UMW for scaling WordPress for multiple networks. The ideas were well-received and sparked lively discussion regarding free speech, censorship, and the changing nature of higher education online branding in the open environment of today’s web.
Two UMW Faculty Members Contribute to Online Volume
September 12, 2011 by
Jim Groom, instructional technology specialist, and Jeff McClurken, associate professor of history and American studies, contributed chapters to “Hacking the Academy, The Edited Volume.” The volume, published online through an open-access license, will be available in print next year.
Groom co-wrote the chapter, “Voices: Learning Management Systems.”
McClurken co-wrote the chapter, “Digital Literacy and the Undergraduate Curriculum.”
For more information about the project, visit http://www.digitalculture.org/hacking-the-academy/.
Jim Groom Speaks at Elon University and Publishes Article
September 3, 2011 by
Jim Groom, instructional technology specialist, presented the closing plenary at Elon University’s 8th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference on August 18, 2011. His presentation “Independent Domains – Thresholds to Teaching and Learning on the Open Web” featured the innovative work being done by faculty and students at UMW in regards to teaching and learning technologies. Following is an excerpt of the positive reception of the session from Elon University’s Teaching and Learning Center blog as well as the slides and audio from his presentation.
In the closing plenary, Jim Groom, in a lively display of humor and insight, posited that independent domains and open web tools provide students, faculty, and people outside the university from all walks of life and around the world opportunities to express, exhibit, and be discovered online with the encumbrance of institutional rules and regulations. He described how MWU [sic] applied simple blog technology (WordPress MU) to create a living nexus of business, information, and highly creative self-expression. The platform also enabled unprecedented participation in open courses by people from around the world.
Groom also published a piece on the problems of learning management systems in the crowdsourced book published by the University of Michigan Library titled Hacking the Academy.
This volume was assembled and edited by Dan Cohen and Tom Scheinfeldt of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University from the best of over 300 submissions received during a spirited week when the two editors actively solicited ideas for how the academy could be beneficially reformed using digital media and technology. For more on the unusual way this book was put together, please start with Cohen and Scheinfeldt’s preface.
