Welcome to EDUCAUSE

The EDUCAUSE Annual Conference is right around the corner this November 6-9 in Denver (and online). EDUCAUSE is a place for higher education IT professionals to network and learn from one another in order to improve the face of education. So I sat down with some of the presenters to get the scoop on what we can look forward to at EDUCAUSE this year. First up, Dave Giberson:

Dave Giberson is an Instructional Design Coordinator at San Diego Community College District. He uses rich media in online and web-enhanced education with emphases on screencasting. He’s been using TechSmith‘s screencasting tools, such as Camtasia and Snagit, to provide services to faculty and staff since 1999. You can see an example of one of his screencasts here.

Outnumbered and Surrounded; Screencasting to the Rescue

Learn about the essential role screencasting (done almost exclusively with TechSmith products—we use them all) plays in our ability to support 500+ faculty and over 30,000 students in online education at the San Diego Community College District. From screencasting for faculty development and training to ad hoc help for faculty and students in immediate need of assistance, I’ll cover it all.

Watch this presentation:

Wednesday: 11:30AM, 3:00PM, 5:30PM
Thursday: 11:30AM, 2:00PM

An Interview with Dave:

When did you first get involved with the tech world? What drew you to it?
I took a programming course in 1971 and loved it. I didn’t get fully involved in tech until the mid 80s when the personal computers first started hitting the streets in significant numbers. At that time, if you knew anything about computers then you were automatically the go-to person for tech questions. I’ve been involved in tech support and tech in education ever since. Hopefully I’ll be doing that for the rest of my life. It’s the best job I’ve ever had. It all started as a hobby and now I make a living from it.

Can you briefly explain what your presentation will be about?
I’ll basically be talking about what I do [at San Diego Community College District] for online education support. We have a very large district and many of our students engage in online classes. There are only three full-time instructional designers in the department that support all of that so we have to be efficient in the way that we provide support. The way we do that is through screencasting… almost exclusively with TechSmith products. We don’t know what we would do without TechSmith products!

What do you like about screencasting? Why is it useful?
Screencasting software is so effective for instruction that to not use it is to miss out on tremendous student learning experiences. It’s not going to replace faculty or the traditional classroom any time soon, which some faculty find threatening. But it’s so easy, quick, sustainable and accessible… why wouldn’t you use it? And most importantly, it will save you a lot of time that you could be better using in other ways.

Why do you think it’s important for faculty to be trained in this field?
One time I had a faculty member come to me in a bad mood, saying “I’ve been sitting at my desk thinking about how many times I have to give this lecture before I die.” I laughed and said, “how about doing it one time, and you can spend your class time doing something else?”

First time I flipped a class with an instructor was about seven or eight years ago. The idea is you don’t have to get something the first time. If they provide you with a screencast, you’ll be able to refer back to it whenever you need to. And I’ve been teaching for a long time… and people don’t get it the first time. They NEED the backup that screencasting provides. I’ve been doing instructional technology for 20 years and to me, it’s the single most effective and worthwhile instructional technology I know. And TechSmith is clearly the lead on that.

If you could meet any one person in the world, who would it be?
J.R.R. Tolkien, who is dead unfortunately.

I’m an exceptional fan of computer networks and what they’ve been able to do for us. So I’d also have to say Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee. They are the people who provided the foundation for the connectivity that we have today that allows us to really communicate with one another and effectively carry instructional design.

Connect with Dave: