WRT: Writer Response Theory

For those of you interested in widget-based education, check out the Educause webinar, Tuesday, January 27.

Educause Announcement below, Official site here.

EDUCAUSE Live! January 27, 2009 1:00 p.m. ET (12:00 p.m. CT, 11:00 a.m. MT, 10:00 a.m. PT); runs one hour
Widgets: The Slicing and Dicing (and Splicing) of Sharable Learning Content

Educators have been searching for ways to modularize and share educational content since the inception of online learning. However, for reasons both cultural and technological, the academic community has been slow to accept past attempts to support learning through the use of reusable, stand-alone, digital assets. With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, widgets, along with a new generation of web-based and mobile content aggregators, provide the key to successfully packaging and delivering web-based educational content. In this Webinar, Marino will share how the production of portable course content in widgets has opened his writing course, and Metros will discuss ways to work with information technology leaders and university administration to deploy and promote widgets as an innovative and supportable learning technology.

Special Guests

Mark C. Marino
Assistant Professor (Teaching) of Writing Program
University of Southern California

Susan E. MetrosSusan E. Metros
Associate Vice Provost and Deputy CIO
Professor of Visual Design and Clinical Education
University of Southern California

Susan E. Metros is Associate Vice Provost for Technology Enhanced Learning and Deputy Chief Information Officer at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She also holds professorships in USC’s Roski School of Fine Arts and Rossier School of Education. She leads the academic community in integrating new and emerging educational technologies into teaching, learning, research, outreach, and business practice. In her role as educator and designer, she teaches courses on new literacies and has served as principal designer on several international award-winning multimedia and Web-based projects. She also is active on numerous international and national boards, committees, and task forces including the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) Advisory Board, which she chairs. She has published and presented widely on innovative leadership, knowledge management, visual and digital literacy, and the role of technology in transforming education to be engaging, interactive, and learner-centered. Metros holds a Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Michigan State University.

Your host, Steve Worona, will be joined by Mark Marino and Susan Metros, and the topic will be “Widgets: The Slicing and Dicing (and Splicing) of Sharable Learning Content.”

Related EDUCAUSE Resources

* Widgets
* Open Content
* Learning Objects
* Web 2.0
* Archives of past EDUCAUSE Live! seminars

Additional Resources

* Guess, A. (2008, December 8), “A Widget Onto the Future,” Inside Higher Ed.
* Marino, M. (2008, August 23), “Widget-based Education,” WRT: Writer Response Theory (blog).
* Marino, M. “Topoi Widget,” Widgetbox, 2008.
* Marino, M. “Intro to the Topoi,” USC Writing Program, Pageflakes, 2008.
* Young, J. (2008, September 11), “Professor Uses Web ‘Widgets’ to Share Course Content,” The Wired Campus, Chronicle of Higher Education.