Renton Technical College
Office of Instructional Improvement
May 2004
Volume 2 No. 10
Here’s What Worked for Me…
Please send us tips for this section—what’s working for you—inspired by a faculty member’s suggestion that if we pooled our
strengths and creativity, it could only benefit our students.
Great website
Donna Maher of the Medical Office Program suggests this website and its introduction.
Organized like a mind-map, it includes most theories of learning with easy to understand graphics.
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/~jamesa/learning/contents.htm
UDL Pilot News
Congratulations to a new group of instructors selected for the UDL Pilot: Richard Nicholls,
Sandra Goldsbary, Shannon Sharpe, Donna Maher, Paul Baeder, John Mundy and Cheryl Dedmon. They join
the “veterans”: Mike Biell, Barb Culler, Tim Culler, Michele Lesmeister, Darlene Lewis, Wendy O’Reilly and
DeEtta Ryan. The UDL Pilot is a Department of Education grant -funded project to determine,
implement and disseminate Best Practices for helping students with learning challenges prosper in post
secondary education.
Adaptive Technology
As students begin to get acquainted with the assistive technologies available to them in the TRC
Open Lab, they are asking about similar technologies they could buy for use at home. The
technologies in the Lab are quite sophisticated and probably out of the budget range of most of our
students ($100-$500) but follow this link for some information on helpful free and share-ware for
Windows: http://www.ldresources.com/resources/windows_shareware.html. These technologies
for text-to-speech, dictionary/thesaurus and magnifiers run in the range of $50 or less—a bit more
affordable. For all the bells and whistles, though, nothing beats the Open Lab! If you are interested
in having a training for your students on the assistive technology available in the Open Lab, contact
Jay Laurie @ jlaurie@rtc.ctc.edu or Cathy Jenner at cjenner@rtc.ctc.edu.
Low cost and practical methods for Internet Classroom Presentations
To you from Hawaii here’s a great presentation from Ken Ekegren on how to keep students who
miss a day in the loop. He records and makes his lectures available over the internet, including an
introduction to the course and syllabus overview. He presents three ways to do this in a narrated
slideshow at http://www.ekegrens.com/hawaii/hawaii_audio.htm If you do not have RealAudio
installed, you will find the information in the site useful, even without the narration.
Create tests forms with Microsoft Word
To make interactive, fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, and drop-down menu tests. Learn how on
this webpage: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial020.shtml
PowerPoint Basics and Advanced Tips
Although many RTC instructors successfully utilizing PowerPoint in their lectures, we can all benefit
from a return to the basics. Amy Gaimaro has 8 tips and 5 tutorials supporting the “less is more”
philosophy of this classroom tool.
http://www.techlearning.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=18400896
And here are some more basics for an effective presentation from Presenter’s University.
http://www.presentersuniversity.com/visuals_Basics.php
Clip Art Gallery
Looking for educational clip art to liven up a handout or a PowerPoint slide? The Clip Art Gallery
offers free, education clip art at http://school.discovery.com/clipart/
Classroom Management
117 types of behavior—what’s behind each of them and how to handle them, from the folks who
know—elementary educators! http://www.disciplinehelp.com >Misbehaviors at school >view all
behaviors.
Graphic organizers
Whether you use them yourself to explain a concept, teach students how to use them to map a
process, or use them to assess a student’s understanding, Graphic Organizers are good multipurpose
tools that are useful for all learning styles. This Scholastic website explains many of the most
common graphic organizers. http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonplans/graphicorg/
The New Eric Database
AskERIC has moved to a new address http://www.eduref.org At the new site you will find access
to more than 2.000 lesson plans, more than 3,000 links to online education information and more
than 200 question archive responses. Although the question-and-answer service is no longer active,
the Educator’s Reference Desk does include a search interface to the ERIC Database of educational
research, theory and practice. For more information
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2004/03/03182004.html
Low-Threshold Applications
LTAs are low-cost, easy to learn, non-intimidating and reliable ways to use technology in teaching.
Here are some examples of LTAs found in the University of Nebraska’s collection:
Using the reviewing toolbar in Microsoft Word http://tc.unl.edu/cansorge/lta/lta11.html
Work with students to avoid cut-and-paste plagiarism http://tc.unl.edu/cansorge/lta/lta32.htm
Computer screen captures and what to do with them http://tc.unl.edu/cansorge/lta/lta30.html
Submit your own LTA idea to us and we’ll share it in a future Faculty Focus.
Microsoft Accessibility Features
Windows accessibility tools can be found in Accessories (go to START>Programs) or the Control
Panel (Go to Accessibility Options). Read a complete article on these features at
https://umdrive.memphis.edu/jsiegel/NECC/MicroApple.html
Telling Stories
The right story at the right time can promote retention. A story helps the students connect a new
learning with what has been learned previously. This site has 8 tips for how to put stories to work.
http://www.makingstories.net/ >click on Articles, then “How to use stories to increase learning.”
Memorization vs. Understanding
Research tells us that the ability to memorize facts does not necessarily imply understanding of a
concept. When students apply the concept they will demonstrate their true understanding. Read
Measuring What Counts by Eeva Reeder for insight into using applied learning. While you are at this
George Lucas Educational Foundation site, you might want to subscribe to Edutopia Online, their
free subscription. http://www.glef.org/php/article.php?id=Art_940&key=005
Hocus Pocus
Magicians and instructors have more things in common than you may think. Lenn Millbower
explores the similarities between these two art forms in Hocus Pocus Focus.
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:NIOQB7De2CQJ:www.astd.org/NR/rdonlyres/6267344
B-F4A0-449E-8B436DEECF80C71D/2753/MillbowerMagic1.pdf++%22Hocus+Pocus+Focus%22&hl=en
New Videos the Library
Eric Palo reports six new videos in the RTC Library which faculty may find interesting:
 Cross cultural communication in diverse settings 302.2 CROSS 1993d
 Class Divided 370.193 CLASS 1997d
 Fair grading made easy: evaluating student achievement 371.271 FAIR 2000g
 Building the team: faculty staff, and students working together 371.9 BUILDING 2001t
 Registered apprenticeship: building a skilled workforce in the 21st century 373.2709
REGISTE 2001a
 9 Traits of highly successful work teams 658.402 NINE-TR 1995
Quotable
Life is not measured by the breaths you take but by the moments that take your
breath away.~ Unknown
For more information regarding the articles in the Faculty Focus or to give input or suggestions of things
you would like to see incorporated into this newsletter please contact the Office of Instructional
Improvement.
The mission of the Office of Instructional Improvement is to advance educational strategies, seek to
improve the quality of learning environments, and support RTC staff as they prepare a diverse student
population for work.