Office of Academic Technology :: Spring Arbor University

OATmeal Recap: Blackboard 9 Basics & Bugs

Last week the Office of Academic Technology kicked off its third year with an overview of Blackboard 9. Held in the Ralph Carey Forum during lunch, the OAT team presented on a variety of changes in Blackboard 9.  Instructional Designer David Goodrich kicked off the presentations by providing an overview of the Assignment Tool [...]

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OAT Podcasts

The Office of Academic Technology releases regular podcasts to profile new technologies as well as interview faculty to see how they are using technology in their teaching. The podcasts can be played below in iTunes. You can subscribe to the podcasts by clicking on the “subscribe via iTunes” link below. ETC: The Educational Technology Coffee Break [...]

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Instructional Design Podcast Series

The term “instructional technology” is often mistaken as a reference to technology used in a teaching or training context. The definition of instructional technology described by Seels and Richey (1994) best describes OAT’s vision of the discipline: “Instructional Technology is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of processes and resources for [...]

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Last OATmeal Reflects on Past, Looks Toward the Future

The final OATmeal faculty buck lunch of the 2008-09 academic year is finished.  But not without a tease about what is to come.  About twenty faculty joined OAT staff in the Ralph Carey Forum to celebrate the past year and look toward the future. Jason Archer reviewed key messaging conduits for faculty to interface for resourcing [...]

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Mobile Learning

Recently, the OAT staff began to do some initial research regarding mobile learning.  Mobile devices are growing at an astronomical pace.  Statistics today show that there are about 7 billion people in the world today.  Roughly 1.6 billion people are connected to the Internet via a computer.  But about 4.3 billion people have mobile phones.  [...]

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December 2008 OATmeal Recap

Finishing The Office of Academic Technology is finishing 2008 strong.  This month focused on the theme of community.  Dr. Robert Moore-Jumonville shared his experiences of seeing community taking place by his students and his response to keep up with the need.  He said it started online when he saw some students using YouTube as a visual [...]

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Latest ETC Podcast :: Introduction to LAMS

Listen to the latest Educational Technology Podcast which features the teaching technology called LAMS. LAMS stands for Learning Activity Management System. Professor Allan Carrington, Learning Designer from University of Adelaide in Australia, introduces a cutting-edge concept for taking Blackboard or online learning to the next level. The basic principle is from moving online learning from [...]

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The First OATmeal

Last week the Office of Academic Technology kicked off a series of faculty buck lunches called “OATmeals”. The purpose of the gatherings is to offer practical tips on integrating technology into teaching using a more informal group setting. The series is geared toward a brief presentation on a technology, its integration into teaching, and how [...]

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Podcasts Become a Regular Feature of OAT

The Office of Academic Technology is headed to iTunes. Specifically iTunes University. Beginning immdiately, OAT will be releasing a weekly episode featuring emerging technologies and the potential effect they have on teaching. Randy Meredith, director of Academic Technology is excited about this initiative. “In order to begin to not only model but provide another resource [...]

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