Sunny San Diego was the setting for my NACUBO presentation this morning with Brendon Connelly of George Fox University. For the talk entitled “Tools, Tips, and Tricks for Workgroup Productivity, we hit a few key web-2.0 type tools that people from world of student financial services might find cool and useful - mindmaps, screencasts, wikis, and RSS.

Well, you can check it out too, because we did the whole talk from a public wiki. There are lots of links and examples, plus a screencast on how to set up Google Reader, an Ajax-y RSS reader that feels a lot like Gmail.

Here’s the link.

Tools, Tips, and Tricks for Workgroup Productivity

It was great to meet so many folks from the financial side of the university. What resonated with them? For starters — the idea of wikis for helping organize internal policies, and screencasts to help students learn how to complete complex forms.

The Spring 2006 CONFCHEM, a free online conference covering the impact of the Web in chemistry education, gets underway later this week. Jean-Claude Bradley is presenting on the chemistry teacher’s changing role in the age of blogs, podcasts, screencasts, wikis, and games.

I wonder if anyone is keeping a list of free online conferences in higher education.

Many of you will be interested in knowing that HigherEd BlogCon kicks off a month of virtual presentations this morning, with two fantastic presentations on podcasting and screencasting in the classroom. Ever wonder about the value of podcasting versus screencasting? How about legal issues in podcasting in the classroom? We have just the presentations for you.

The past week or so has been a blur for me, working with the section chairs and editors to get things organized and working with presenters to get their materials loaded into the conference blog. I’m glad we decided to encourage presenters to submit screencasts. For one thing, it’s giving many an opportunity to learn a new tool. Most of the presentations in this week’s Teaching track are made via screencasts, which are very easy to stop and start, rewind, etc. I’m hoping that this event will help solidify the connection between screencasts and learning. So, for these reasons, and for the sheer fun of visual media, the extra effort involved in collecting and hosting the screencasts is going to be well worth it.

In two recent posts, Corante’s blog covering podcasting highlights a company offering language learning products via podcast, as well as the University of Washington’s classroom podcasting initiative. The latter points to the role of screencasting in learning, a concept familiar to readers of this blog.

Yesterday I had the good fortune of participating in a meeting of the Drexel RSS Club, held on the campus of Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA.

Jean-Claude Bradley, in his dual role as associate prof in the chemistry department and e-learning coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences, runs the Club. Not only is Jean-Claude steeped in the latest possibilities for syndicating media, he is also keenly learner-focused–a killer combination for any student in or around these environs.

Professors who attended yesterday’s meeting are experimenting with screencasting both for lecture material and also for providing multi-dimensional feedback on student assignments. One of them who teaches freshman writing uses screencasting to supplement in-person reviews of assignments, with verbal and written feedback offered in a single package as a screencast.

It was an invigorating meeting, and it further opened my eyes to some of the possibilities syndication holds for the classroom. The world of learning is changing; keep your eye on this group.

P.S. Hey Jean-Claude, an idea for your spare time (ha!): It looks like the Wikipedia entry for “screencast” needs attention!