University of Washington Shows Canvas the Love

OK, a few colleagues now call me the UWT "Canvas Evangelist" and I'm just resigning myself to wearing the title openly rather than groaning or explaining my passion. Canvas! Loud and Proud. 

For compadres, faculty of the University of Washington system who love Canvas, and perhaps even more so for those who don't yet feel the love,  the Provost's Office has released a few new 2y2d-produced mini-videos on advanced uses of Canvas. 

Check them out as they feature some of the innovative and thoughtful uses of technology that we recently saw featured in the paper report series you'll find at the 2y2d Teaching and Learning site.  (If you'd like a lovely, color, paper copy of any of the reports, come to the Faculty Resource Center. We still have a few left from our Spring workshops.)

 If you've accessed the UWT navigation links recently, you may have noticed that Blackboard is gone - gone - gone and  Canvas is in full production. Let's pause for a hearty thanks to central IT services, 2y2d, the Provost's Office, and of course the great state of Washington that pushed us to  join Washington higher education institutions in adopting the state-supported system. We're now on a seamless path for UWT's transfer students and Academic Technologies is able to leverage a wealth of shared knowledge in Washington instructional support folk, which we've already tapped into at the first meeting of the Washington Canvas User Group  - where Darcy and I rocked the house with two presentations. 

So, check out the UW YouTube site when you have a few minutes.  The new videos are great resources in exploring the WHY and the HOW of our new learning environment and its built-in engagement technologies. They offer faculty-to- faculty practical advice on using Canvas features in some very pedagogically thoughtful ways. The new videos are:

Grading Tools:  http://youtu.be/pqXFqBQ9q1o

In Class collaboration:  http://youtu.be/GzJ1nz5c65s

These complement the introduction to Canvas video that the Provost's Office created earlier this year and that now has over 1300 views and counting.  They are each part of the "teaching with technology" UW push for 2013.  The faculty featured are examples of innovators who use technology in new, exciting, pedagogically sound ways. And Canvas makes it easy! Whether you're interested in enhancing your own classroom presence, greater participation and collaboration by students in the classroom, or thinking of moving to an anytime-anywhere learning modality with hybrid and online offerings - these videos will spark creative fire and having you clicking into new Canvas territories. 

Canvas. It's not your big brother's LMS.