Comments for Mike Vigilant

Comment on LMS? OMG! by Mike Kisow

Mike Kisow — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 00:56:45 +0000

Hello Mike, I appreciate your thoughtful post on a subject dear to my heart. My name is Mike Kisow and for two years I utilized Instructure’s Canvas LMS with my students and staff in support of our 1:1 laptop and virtual school programs. Due to our success with Canvas, I have now joined Instructure as a solutions engineer and K12 consultant. I wanted to reach out to you (and your readers) to offer my practical experience in implementing an LMS from both the technical and change management perspectives. I’d be more than willing to share my story with you, walk you through some best practices, or perhaps help you setup your Canvas course without any need for student email addresses. We’re here to help in any way that works best for you.

Best Regards,
Mike Kisow. mikek@instructure.com

Comment on LMS? OMG! by Nick Gilsom

Nick Gilsom — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:06:14 +0000

I was concidering several lms solutions as well. As I didn't want to hire additional technical staff to manage the open sourse system (such as Moodle), I had to make choice among commercial low-cost lms's. And I picked up JoomlaLMS (Joomla-based e-learning). What I like most about this solution, is its democratic price (only $500/year for a 500-users account) and unlimited customization possibilities on an affordable cost as well. Among cons, I would notice the lack of mobile application and quite rare system upgrade releases (once a year or so). Nevertheless, I do find JoomlaLMS the most effective among lowcost commercial solutions for elearning.

Comment on In Defense of PowerPoint by Tom Panarese

Tom Panarese — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 11:45:41 +0000

My frustration with some of the chats that I participate in seems to be the same as yours–a tendency toward groupthink as well as too many platitudes and “sound bytes.” Granted, I realize that usually these chats take place on Twitter, but I think it’s possible to have an honest, in-depth conversation via Twitter and sometimes there’s too much retweeting of phrases that I hear in every bad PD session I’ve ever been in.

As for PowerPoint, Prezi, etc. … I agree with your points here as well. I’ve used both and don’t really prefer one over the other (except that I find Prezi doesn’t screw up as much when it comes to playing embedded videos).

What I found most interesting in the chat, btw (and I don’t know if you stayed all the way through the entire thing or left early) was the insistence (or maybe it was an assumption) that when given the choice to do “anything” in a presentation, students will automatically be incredibly creative. While I have found this can be true, I wish that people on these chats would acknowledge the other side of that coin, which is that students will find ways to half-ass things as well … and you shouldn’t blame them, but blame their teachers for it. I’m not trying to crap all over students here, but that just seems to be another example of the groupthink at work.

Sorry for the tome. Great post.

Comment on Summer: The Eight-Week Planning Time by John at TestSoup

John at TestSoup — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:04:10 +0000

This is why we pay teachers the big bucks!

But, in all seriousness, this is a great example of what educators should be doing with their summers. I’m not demanding that all teachers work full time during the summer in preparation for the next school year, but it’s a mistake to assume that what worked last year can simply rollover to the next.

I applaud your initiative! Wishing you a great transition from tech specialist to teacher…

Comment on My Thoughts on Tablets by John at TestSoup

John at TestSoup — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:12:38 +0000

The thing about android is, as you say, almost every company has their own skin over it. Some of those work great. Others… not so much.

I love my Droid phone at times. At others, I hate it. It is still in need of lots of refinement.

Comment on Considering the Flipped Class by John at TestSoup

John at TestSoup — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:58:57 +0000

Do it!

I’m sure you’ve made enough contacts through #edchat to have all the support you would need!

Comment on Spring Break is Over! by John at TestSoup

John at TestSoup — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:30:10 +0000

I am always impressed at how short the school year seems — now that I’m no longer a student!

Comment on I Changed the Blog by John at TestSoup

John at TestSoup — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:07:54 +0000

This is relevant to my interests.

Comment on Encouraging Critical Thinking About Technology by John at TestSoup

John at TestSoup — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:15:46 +0000

I really think the best thing to do is make those wiki pages so you can just refer teachers to them without taking up too much time.

Comment on The Grad School Search by John at TestSoup

John at TestSoup — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:26:35 +0000

Indeed we will. It’s an exciting time to be involved in education!