Monthly Archives: November 2014

Final Project: Online syllabus

For our final project, I created an online version of a syllabus I have to submit. I did it on WordPress. I favored clarity and attractiveness. My main objective is that students have this available within an easy click. Blackboard is OK, but you have to click so many times through the menu that is unbearable. With an online syllabus students can consult it without needing any downloading/printing, and with handy menu to find what they are looking for faster.

My main problem is the theme. I have chosen Motif because it is a full-width theme and it has the menu on the top bar. However, I cannot find a way to remove the widgets from the side. If you go to the theme, they do not appear on the demo. When I tried to customize them, the widget section is empty.

I am still balancing colors/fonts with the contents. Because of all these are pages, there is very little room for formatting. Also, I want to eliminate the comments from all pages but I don’t know how.

I tried to include other tools we’ve worked on during this course such as about.me/twitter widgets. Although the syllabus per se is not finished, I would LOVE any suggestions that you might have to improve it. I won’t probably be teaching this class, but I thought it was a great opportunity to polish curriculum-building skills.

Thanks!!!!

 

TPC+R project: Zaption tour

For my project in this class (for now), I created a Zaption tour, which I hope to use when I teach Conflict Transformation Skills next January & February.  (I have ideas of other projects I hope to complete in preparation for this course, including a second Zaption tour–but this was all I could finish in time for our final meeting on Nov 25!)

My tour uses a video made by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) from the UK.  The video is featured on the Acas website, © Acas, Euston Tower, 286 Euston Road, London NW1 3JJ (2001 – 2009), and was uploaded to YouTube Mar 11, 2011.

My  learning objectives in creating this Zaption video tour for my students are: 1) to let them see an example of well-performed conflict mediation; 2) to give them opportunity to apply concepts from their reading of John Paul Lederach’s Little Book of Conflict Transformation.

If you wish to preview my tour, here is the link: http://zapt.io/t2f9zm3k