June 2010
6 tags
Teaching with Google Wave →
In fact, Wave is extremely powerful groupware, designed to facilitate the interactions of groups working together on projects—which turns out to be a pretty good description of many college classes.
4 tags
Views: Higher Education's Big Lie →
The notion that education, particularly a college degree, is the key to career success is a particularly American idea. It is what the sociologists W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson have called “the education gospel,” a national ethos of hard work in school paying off and of equal opportunity for all. Politicians of every stripe have addressed unemployment by advising the unemployed...
3 tags
“Every syllabus should be published, indexed, and freely available online.”
– This might stir up some controversy…
Blog U.: Syllabi Should Be Open - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed
8 tags
A Self-Appointed Teacher Runs a One-Man 'Academy'... →
The most popular educator on YouTube does not have a Ph.D. He has never taught at a college or university. And he delivers all of his lectures from a bedroom closet.
This upstart is Salman Khan, a 33-year-old who quit his job as a financial analyst to spend more time making homemade lecture videos in his home studio. His unusual teaching materials started as a way to tutor his faraway cousins,...
5 tags
“Our brains don’t adapt as quickly as the technology works. Humans have limited...”
– Pamela B. Rutledge, Ph.D., MBA, and director of the Media Psychology Research Center.
Why Feedback and Filters are Necessary in Social Media
5 tags
Build a PDF Slideshow with your Photo Albums in... →
If you have pictures on Facebook,you’ll absolutely love the Pick & Zip app.
It’s a simple web based tool that lets you download complete photo albums from Facebook to your computer with one click. You can either download the photos as one zip file or as a beautiful PDF slideshow.
The app is fast, intuitive and you wish Facebook offered something similar as a native feature. You may not only...
May I have your attention please:
From this day forward, it will be spelled “email” and not “e-mail.”
Thank you.
3 tags
“The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and...”
– Tom Bodett (via #johannal) (via quote-book)
5 tags
6 tags
We feel, therefore we learn →
The aspects of cognition that are recruited most heavily in education, including learning, attention, memory, decision making, motivation, and social functioning, are both profoundly affected by emotion and in fact subsumed within the processes of emotion. Emotions entail the perception of an…
2 tags
“We cannot hope that we might have just missed their call, because our phones are...”
– via: I wrote this for you (via kari-shma) (via quote-book)
7 tags
“You’d be crazy to work in a school today. You don’t get to do what...”
– http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.02/jobs_pr.html
6 tags
The library was closed, so these students made... →
Since it opened June 1, the so-called “People’s Library” has been available until midnight each day. It was organized by a group of students after administrators curtailed regular library hours this year because of state budget cuts. Organizers contend that reduced access to library resources was affecting students’ studies, especially in the run-up to this week’s...
6 tags
“The higher education industry should at least agree on one thing when it comes...”
– Views: Taming the Textbook Market - Inside Higher Ed
7 tags
College students have less empathy than past... →
The research finds that college students today show 40% less empathy vs. students in the 1980s and 1990s. The students are less likely to agree with statements such as “I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me” and “I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective.”
This falls under the...
7 tags
Is Facebook Getting Bigger Than Google? [STATS] →
While social networks such as Facebook don’t pose an immediate threat to search engines for their core functionality — organizing the web and helping people find content — they do pose a large threat to search engines’ largest revenue source, advertising.
4 tags
“According to the report, discounting socioeconomic, familial or school factors,...”
– Technology Strongly Affects Test Scores of Chile’s Students
8 tags
Software lets students take exams at leisure →
I’m on the fence about this one. It’s half disturbing, half useful.
The National Union of Students gave the idea a cautious welcome. “It would be one solution to problems faced by those who might have difficulty reaching a university campus for exams,” said a spokesman.
“However it must not be used as an excuse to further cut costs or corners by reducing the amount of...
5 tags
PTA joins with Facebook to promote internet safety →
I hope I don’t sound crass, but they’re a little late to the party. Better late than never, though. I’m glad two significant groups are making a deliberate move to confront cyber bullying. The kids aren’t just stealing lunch money any more.
The world’s largest online social network and the National PTA will work together to build a program to provide information and support...
5 tags
PTA joins with Facebook to promote internet safety →
I hope I don’t sound crass, but they’re a little late to the party. Better late than never, though. I’m glad two significant groups are making a deliberate move to confront cyber bullying. The kids aren’t just stealing lunch money any more.
The world’s largest online social network and the National PTA will work together to build a program to provide information and support...
6 tags
Unboxed - Yes, People Still Read, but Now It’s... →
5 tags
Twitter to Change Links and How They Are Displayed... →
In an effort to bypass the obscurity of shortened links and to prevent malware and phishing attacks, Twitter has begun the rollout of t.co, its official URL shortener, along with some major changes to how the microblogging platform handles links.
3 tags
BP Buys Top Google Result for "Oil Spill" →
Rather than spending money to reimburse members of local industry whose lives and livelihoods they destroyed, or on actually cleaning up the oil spill, or training people to use boom effectively, or cutting off the oil spill in a quicker way (because really, they have to contain it in a way that lets them still pull oil from it, of course), they’re buying up ad space on Google. To help their...
9 tags
1 in 5 PostSecret readers forward bad info linking... →
A few days ago PostSecret added this link to their Facebook and Twitter pages. The link directs to an article from The Telegraph, which claims one in five divorces are now linked to Facebook. It generated a huge amount of conversation and retweets. It’s too bad the whole article is garbage. Here are the issues with it:
1) This came from The Telegraph. The Telegraph! It’s a junk rag...
7 tags
WatchSir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution! | Video on TED.com
8 tags
7 Tips for Building Collaborative Learning Spaces... →
Note: This is one of those annoying seven-page-click-a-link-to-get-to-each-page-because-we’re-too-lazy-to-put-everything-on-one-page-and-besides-how-would-we-overload-you-with-more-ads types of articles. Here’s the link to the printable format for a one page version.
If your school is seeking to incorporate more collaborative approaches to teaching and learning, the design of the...
14 tags
Reflections on Teaching with Social Media →
Some solid feedback from a college instructor about using social media in the classroom. I see some common trends popping up in articles like this:
Mixed results, but mostly positive. Sometimes the attempt falls flat, but there have been really positive experiences.
Not as many students know/use certain tools (Twitter) as we give them credit for.
There will be problems. Prepare for that...
5 tags
An Introduction to Google Voice →
For those of you who took advantage of the offer for an immediate invite for people with a .edu address (that includes students, faculty, and staff).
7 tags
The Genius in All of Us →
An interesting piece from Joshua Kim over at Inside Higher Ed.
I’m convinced that technology will provide the bridge between learning theory and teaching practice in higher ed. The gap between what we know and what we can actually accomplish is always large. For instance, we know that the best learning takes place in a seminar setting, with students and teachers sitting around a table and...
4 tags
Twitter, now 2 billion tweets per month | Royal... →
Current estimates have it pegged at 7 billion a month by next year.
Can that many people really be sharing what they had for lunch while talking about #JustinBieber?
4 tags
Microsoft launches online teacher network →
Teachers across the United States will have an opportunity to communicate and collaborate with top-notch educators from all over the world through Microsoft Corp.’s Innovative Teachers Network (ITN), a new online forum that promotes the exchange of ideas and methods on how best to incorporate technology into the classroom effectively.
6 tags
“The teaching process has remained largely unchanged in over hundreds of years....”
– Google Wave for Teachers: A Concept
5 tags
How will the iPad change education? « PBS... →
A quick, thought-provoking article from PBS TeacherLine.
9 tags
Shakespeare meets iPod →
“We know students are familiar with technology, they read e-mails every day, they blog,” said Terry Wetherington, instructional technical specialist for the school system. “What we’re trying to do is bring those tools into the classroom. It also could encourage more kids to participate in and be involved in advanced placement courses.”
5 tags
A file-sharing suit with my name on it? (FAQ) →
But the latest round of lawsuits isn’t being brought by gargantuan entertainment conglomerates, with their legions of lawyers and deep pools of cash. A dozen or so little-known film companies, with far fewer resources than the big studios, have mounted their own legal challenge to file sharing. And these guys appear to be playing by their own rules. In a few short months, they’ve filed...
7 tags
Scholars Compile Academic Book From Twitter and... →
It’s amazing what groups of people can do when they’re given new ways to interact and communicate.
Two academics put out an online call for material. In one week, they had a book’s worth.
Hacking the Academy, an edited volume about academe in the digital age, was compiled from blog posts and Twitter messages posted during a single week. The project was organized by Dan Cohen and...
10 tags
Animoto easily creates video from images →
Here’s a fascinating new tool I ran into on a Notre Dame blog.
Animoto is a web-based service where you create a video from images, video clips, and music. First you pick a theme, then you upload photos and videos, and finally you pick or upload a soundtrack (you are cautioned, of course, not to use copyrighted material, and free soundtracks are provided for your use). After you supply the...
4 tags
“Our kids, whether we like it or not, are digital natives — people for whom...”
– Does your teen need a break from all that technology? - Chicago Tribune
6 tags
Can academic integrity exist in the Google Age? →
Technology can make it easy to coast, cheat, and otherwise circumvent the educational process. The National Society of Collegiate Scholars would like students to embrace integrity instead.
6 tags
10 tags
"YouTube Is UsTube": Creators Step in to Defend... →
6 tags
Editorial: Media illiteracy →
Technology is merely a tool. It’s not inherently good or bad in itself; these value judgments depend on the uses to which it is put. I’m pretty sure a former University of Chicago law professor and avowed BlackBerry user understands this, too.
Anyone who’s been paying attention these last few years should know that Obama also recognizes technology’s potential as a tool for learning, or...
5 tags
Purdue Professor Embeds Hyperlinks in Printed... →
A really cool application of technology in an older medium.
People who prefer print books over e-books may still want extra digital material to go with them. That’s the idea behind Sorin Matei’s project, Ubimark, which embeds books with two-dimensional codes that work as hyperlinks when photographed.
7 tags
“Imagine if we could harness this drive to connect for the purpose of learning....”
– Teaching in a socially networked classroom | Curriculum | eSchoolNews.com
5 tags
7 tags
Image-conscious youth rein in social networking →
Among other things, the study found that young adults ages 18-29 are the most likely to limit the amount of personal information they share online—and the least likely to trust free online services ranging from Facebook to LinkedIn and MySpace.
5 tags
Facebook user phone numbers freely available on... →
Yet another alarming demonstration of just how much info we leave out there on Facebook.
The service, called Evil, sifts through Facebook groups to find posts left by users that include their phone numbers. It then displays the person’s name and all but the last three digits of their phone numbers on the site.
5 tags
Quitting Facebook Is Pointless; Challenging Them... →
With this backdrop in mind, I want to enumerate six beliefs that I have that I want to flesh out in this post in light of discussions about how “everyone” is leaving Facebook:
1. I do not believe that people will (or should) leave Facebook because of privacy issues.
2. I do not believe that the tech elites who are publicly leaving Facebook will affect on the company’s numbers; they are...
5 tags
Togetherville: A social network for kids - CNN.com →
Fully compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Togetherville is intended for kids who are too young for Facebook, officially, but have parents immersed in that culture. The 6- to 10-year-olds are invited to engage with their real-world friends, play games, watch videos, and create art. Grownups act as the gateways for new contacts, assuming the responsibility for...
4 tags
“BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, analysed the results of a survey of 35,000...”
– BBC News - Technology linked to happiness, study claims 