Jason Rhode's shared items in Google Reader

How Social Networking Will Change Learning - Tom Vander Ark, Huffington Post

2009-11-11T00:01:00Z

I'm betting on social learning platforms as a lever for improvement at scale in education. Instead of a classroom as the primary organizing principle, social networks will become the primary building block of learning communities (both formal and informal). Smart recommendation engines will queue personalized content. Tutoring, training, and collaboration tools will be applications that run on social networks. New schools will be formed around these capabilities. Teachers in existing schools will adopt free tools yielding viral, bureaucracy-cutting productivity improvement.

Seven Things You Should Know about Google Wave - EDUCAUSE (with thanks to Seb Schmoller)

2009-11-15T00:01:00Z

Google is developing an application that has elements of existing communication tools but is built around a different model of how communication—and collaboration—take place. With Wave, users create online spaces called "waves," which may include multiple discrete messages and components—"blips"—that constitute a running, conversational document. Users access waves through the web, resulting in a model of communication in which separate copies of multiple messages are not sent to different people; instead, the content resides in a single space. People go to a wave to access the content, respond to it, change it, replay it, send it to a blog, or add new material or attachments.

Online Learning Technologies: National Survey of Student Engagement 2009 Report

2009-11-15T00:05:00Z

Course management and interactive technologies were positively related to student engagement, self-reported learning outcomes, and deep approaches to learning. Course management technology was most strongly related to student-faculty interaction and self-reported gains in personal and social development. It is possible that the use of this type of organizational technology encourages contact among classmates as well as between students and their instructors. Interactive technologies corresponded most strongly with students’ self-reported gains and the supportive campus environment benchmark. Students who use interactive technologies are also more likely to say their campus environment is supportive and contributes to their knowledge, skills, and personal development.

Educator Use of Social Networking Lags Behind Interest - Scott Aronowitz, THE Journal

2009-11-18T00:01:00Z

The final results of an extensive nationwide survey on educator use of social networking were published last week, and it appears that more than six educators in ten are at least interested enough in the growing medium to register on one or more sites. What this will mean in the long run for the impact of social networking on education, however, is far less clear. The survey, sponsored by educational networking site edWeb.net, mailing list and database firm MCH, and education marketing research firm MMS Education, was sent to 83,000 educators throughout the United States in August and September, including teachers, school librarians, and administrators.

Social Media as Punk 2.0

2009-11-09T18:09:07Z

I saw this video recently on Richard Darell's Bit Rebel's site. When done well, I enjoy video/animation explanations of social media and/or complex participatory enterprises. This video "Social media is the new punk rock" offers a new interpretation of how social media shifts the opportunity to listen and more importantly be heard to the masses. I feel it does so at the cost of working through some of the finer points, e.g., ethics, responsibility, intent, social action, citizenship, social justice, etc., that are equally important. Nonetheless, the video provides a starting point for a discussion of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of social/participatory media.

The video itself was produced by EngageORM, an online reputation management service from Australia. The catchy music and video suggest a knowledgeable designer who recognizeshow audio and animation are affective ways to grab our attention. I'm sure Gary Stager would have plenty to say about such puffery. Yet as I mentioned, when working with a wide range of learners,the video does offer a point of entry for deeper discussion. As always, caveat emptor.

Tips for Teaching During a Health Crisis

2009-11-02T19:18:10Z

The H1N1 virus (Swine Flu) is expected to make a comeback to the United States this school year and officials say that college campuses could be impacted. It’s prudent for faculty to be proactive by considering how their teaching may be affected by an illness outbreak and exploring steps to continue teaching during such a situation. Here are a few suggestions as well as questions to consider when preparing for teaching during a health crisis recommended by a number of institutions. As these are simply recommendations, implement the suggestions that are applicable for your discipline and course as allowed by your college and department policies.

Preparation

Preparing to teach a new course for the first time, as with any new experience, is a journey into unchartered waters. It is difficult to know exactly what to expect until actually experiencing the process. Regardless of how prepared one may strive to be, undoubtedly adjustments will be needed along the way. Each successive iteration of the course likely results in a refined and improved learning experience for students, incorporating revisions resulting from previous experiences.

No matter how familiar one may be with the course content, preparing to teach in a new format or environment involves recognizing a number of new variables and then incorporating them into the planning process. The challenge of teaching a class during a health crisis is no different from teaching in any other new instructional context, requiring adapting methods to meet the given context.

The possibility of teaching a class during a health crisis raises a number of additional scenarios and questions for consideration. A few questions that may come to mind when preparing to teach during a health crisis include:

What accommodations will you make for ill students?
What if ill students attend your classes despite health warnings to remain at home?
What if you become ill?
How will you continue the teaching and learning process during an extended illness?
What if classes are canceled?

These are just a few of the many questions that may likely surface when considering strategies addressing these issues. Preparation is necessary in any instructional environment, but even more so for a crisis scenario.

Tips for Preparing:

Plan ahead. As the proverb states, “He who fails to plan, plans to fail.” This may be stating the obvious, but it is always a good idea to plan as far in advance as possible when preparing to teach. Doing so helps alleviate stress caused by last-minute preparations.

Have an alternate plan. In addition to planning ahead, include alternate plans for as many potential circumstances as possible. Review your teaching plan and identify possible areas beyond your control that may impact your plan. Then, develop a contingency plan to keep it on hand in the event that you need to deviate from your original plan.

Make your plan realistic. Keep in mind the full scope of your teaching, research, and service obligations as well as family and other personal commitments as you make your plan. Purposefully schedule your weekly class preparation time, office hours, and other teaching duties while balancing your other responsibilities.

Make your plan available to your department. Consider sharing your plan with your department chair and/or be prepared to do so with your department if for any reason someone else is needed to step-in and assist with or teach your course in your absence.

Keep yourself healthy. Take the recommended precautions to reduce the chance of becoming ill yourself and encourage your students to do the same. For suggestions on keeping healthy, visit http://www.idph.state.il.us/h1n1_flu/sf_keephealthy.htm

Become familiar with available resources. A host of support units, resources, and technologies are available for NIU faculty to utilize. A great place to start is the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center, where you can find information and links to all the resources available for NIU faculty. Perhaps consider attending a workshop on a new pedagogical approach or instructional technology or avail yourself to the wealth of step-by-step resources available at http://www.niu.edu/facdev

Be aware of NIU’s news, information, and updates concerning H1N1. Visit the online resources available, including the NIU H1N1 flu prevention site at http://www.niu.edu/flu and the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center collection of resources for teaching during a health crisis at http://www.niu.edu/facdev/resources/healthcrisis

Instructional Alternatives

An important component of the preparation process is identifying instructional alternatives that can be put in place if necessary to supplement and/or replace certain face-to-face interactions that are commonplace in the classroom setting. When contemplating the dynamics of teaching during a health crisis, consider how teaching the class with a diminished number of students will affect your teaching. What activities might need to be adjusted in the event of a health crisis?

Instructional presentation. What is the primary method for sharing instructional content with your students? Are in-class lectures crucial for students to grasp the concepts covered and meet instructional objectives? Numerous alternatives exist to traditional in-class instructional presentations, including using an online collaboration tool built in Blackboard called Wimba Classroom for replicating rich collaborative interactions from the classroom online.

Class discussion. Once students complete required readings and/or view instructional presentations, how will they process the information and interact with one another in the learning process? Both synchronous and asynchronous tools within Blackboard can be used to facilitate discussions, either class-wide or within smaller groups for students who can’t attend class sessions.

Class news and announcements. How will students be informed of class-related news and announcements that they would otherwise receive during class? Consider alternative avenues for communicating class news and announcements. Blackboard includes both email and announcement tools, making it possible to easily post an announcement for the class and simultaneously email the announcement to all students in the course. In addition, if students choose to install the new Blackboard Sync applications, either for their Facebook or iPhone / iPod Touch, they can receive class news and announcements on these platforms as well.

Student questions. How will students receive answers to questions that otherwise would be addressed in class? The Blackboard Discussion Board is a great location for addressing student questions. Once the faculty creates a forum for questions and answers, students can post questions and faculty or other students can respond in a centralized location. A subscription feature is available that when enabled, emails any new postings directly to the subscriber. Faculty who choose to subscribe to a forum will receive student questions via email and can respond promptly in the discussion board and even follow-up via email if necessary.

Assessment of student learning. How will students demonstrate competence in meeting course objectives? Several online assessment tools are available within Blackboard that can be used to facilitate the assessment process. For example, online quizzes can be conducted via Blackboard in place of in-class paper-based quizzes.

Ideas for continuing the teaching and learning process during an extended illness:

Record short instructional presentations to supplement in-class presentations. Using Wimba Classroom or another presentation recording and authoring tool, record short presentations that introduce the materials for the week or perhaps recap important points discussed. Make the recorded presentations available for students to view online and/or as a podcast for viewing offline on their computer or mobile device.

Move class discussion online to allow all students to participate in course discussion activities. Create a forum within the Blackboard Discussion Board for the given week or content unit and prepare questions for students to respond to. Inform students of expectations for substantive responses and criteria for evaluating their contributions. By enabling the grading feature for the forum, faculty can easily view the posts from a given student and assign a score for their participation.

Conduct online office hours instead of on-campus office hours, allowing students, who perhaps are still ill, the ability to connect with you, ask questions, and remain involved in the teaching and learning process. Consider archiving these sessions for students who are unable to attend to view the recordings later.

Post grades and feedback online so affected students can view their individual graded assignments. Access to assignment scores and feedback posted in Blackboard is restricted; students can only view their own individual scores and available feedback from the faculty.

Conduct low-stakes online quizzes to assess whether learning is taking place outside class sessions. Provide an opportunity for affected students to take an alternative form of in-class quizzes that may be drawn from a pool of questions from course readings or class notes.

Present lectures online in lieu of selected in-class lecture presentations if you are familiar with online lecture technologies and such alternatives are appropriate. Using the Wimba Classroom tool in Blackboard, give live online lectures in which students can see presentations materials, hear and see the instructor, and interact with the instructor and fellow students in real time. Students who are ill or concerned about being in close proximity with other learners can participate from any computer connected to the Internet. Archive the sessions for students who are unable to attend so they can view the recordings later.

Accommodations

Not only must instructional alternatives be considered, but also accommodations for students who miss class in the event of an extended illness. It certainly may be challenging to maintain academic rigor while also accommodating the physical needs of students. It is important to become aware of university and departmental policies addressing interruptions caused by extended illness. After reviewing existing university recommendations, you may wish to develop your own strategies for accommodating students affected by a health crisis.

Suggestions for accommodating students during a health crisis:

Keep students up-to-date when they miss class for an extended period of time. Communicate with students, either via phone, email, or online announcements in Blackboard.

Collect assignments electronically instead of in paper form. Provide students who are unable to attend class the opportunity to submit work in electronic form, either via email or using the Assignment Manager in Blackboard.

Develop guidelines for make-up work. Identify possible alternatives to assigned in-class work that could be completed outside of class. For example, if students are ill and unable to complete a required lab activity, how will this situation be addressed? You may ask the student, once healthy, to come to a lab and complete the assignment outside of class time.

Provide instructional alternatives. Contemplate how students who are unable to attend class will have access to information covered. Ideas might include recording lectures and posting as podcast, providing class notes electronically, and/or requesting that students share their hand-written notes with affected students. Perhaps discuss with the class what instructional alternatives they would find most helpful.

Prepare hard copy packets. For affected students who may not have ready access to the Internet, you may consider preparing hard copies of reference materials, assignments, etc. to distribute to ill students in addition to posting online in Blackboard. These materials could be mailed to students and would be available when they return to campus.

Institutional Resources

Begin your preparation efforts by becoming familiar with the available resources specific to the support services, guidelines, and directives from NIU. To find and the news, information, and resources from NIU regarding teaching during a health crisis, visit http://www.niu.edu/facdev/resources/healthcrisis. Among the notable institutional resources available there, you will find:

Additional Resources

Additionally, a number of local, state, and federal agencies are providing current information online concerning preparation and response to H1N1 flu, including:

If you are in need of further assistance in your teaching or teaching-related activities, contact the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center at 815-753-0595 or email facdev@niu.edu

Tools of Engagement: Technologies and Strategies for All Learning Styles

2009-10-28T12:15:21Z

How do you motivate online learners?

It’s an age-old question that continues to stump online instructors as well as the managers of distance education programs trying to solve the attrition problem that continues to drag down this otherwise thriving segment of higher education.

Perhaps one reason for poor online retention rates, says Dr. Curt Bonk, professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University, is that instructors are not engaging students with the technologies they love nor are they taking full advantage of the online tools and applications that have become so readily available.

During the recent online seminar Creatively Engaging Online Students: Models and Activities, Bonk explained how instructors can use “low-risk, low-cost, low-time activities” that are relatively easy to incorporate into a lesson, but make a big impact on student engagement and learning.

Using his TEC-VARIETY Model, which is an acronym that stands for Tone, Encouragement, Curiosity, Variety, Autonomy, Relevance, Interactive, Engagement, Tension, and Yields products, Bonk outlined a wide range of web technologies and resources that address each of the TEC-VARIETY components to make a difference in the online learning experience. Some of the tools he discussed include: Jing, Screenr, Slideshare, Animoto, Google Docs, and YackPack.

Bonk also showed how different learning styles can be addressed using what he calls the R2D2 Method, which thankfully has nothing to do with Star Wars and actually stands for Read (auditory and visual learners), Reflect (reflective learners), Display (visual learners) and Do (tactile, kinesthetic, and exploratory learners).

Resources that address the R2D2 Method range from blogs and video blogs (or vlogs as they’re sometimes called), to wikis, podcasts, concept maps, online timelines, Flash, 3-D visualization, surveys, and map mash-ups.

Although it’s easy to get overwhelmed, and at times intimidated, by all the new resources available today, Bonk encourages experimentation. He also recommends enlisting the help of students to be “the cool resource provider” by finding and presenting that day’s relevant online video clip.

Tips for Managing Large Online Classes

2009-11-06T12:11:14Z

Teaching large classes, whether face-to-face or in the online learning environment, is never easy. But there are things you can do to ensure a good experience for you and your students.

The following tips from Susan Ko, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Maryland University College, will help you maintain course quality and interaction in large online courses:

Use study groups for some of the asynchronous discussions. Have students in groups of up to 10 members conduct threaded discussions. Let them know that you will be observing these discussions, and have them post a summary of their discussions to a classwide discussion area.
Divide topics into manageable units. Keep the number of main topic threads to a minimum in a single discussion to avoid confusion. You can create a new topic or even a new discussion if needed. But be sure to explain how these discussions are organized, so students can follow them easily.

Explain the protocol for responding to a post. Make sure that students know to accurately title each posting to correctly reflect the subject they wish to discuss. Also, have students quote the section of a previous posting to which they are responding.

Reconsider posting requirements. In a small class, you may require students to respond to an initial prompt and then to the posts of two classmates. In a larger class, this amount of posts may not be appropriate.
Don’t feel obligated to respond to every student. You may be able to combine responses to more than one question or encourage students to respond to their classmates’ questions.
Use group assignments. Turn an individual assignment into a group assignment, and grade both the individual contribution and the whole project.
Use peer review. Create a rubric for students to assess one another’s work.
Use a detailed grading rubric to provide feedback. This will allow you to give students a clear explanation of what their grades mean, without having to add commentary.

Reference

Ko, Susan. “Tips for Managing Larger Online Classes.” DE Oracle @ UMUC. November/December 2007.

Accessed March 19, 2008 from here.

Reprinted from Tips From the Pros: Managing a Large Online Class, Online Classroom, April 2008.

If you teach large classes, either online or face-to-face, you’ll find more tips like these in our free report: Strategies for Teaching Large Classes. Go here to download it.

How do you manage your large classes? Share your tips in the “comment” box below.

‘Managing Online Education’ Study Sheds New Light on the Operations Side of Online Programs

2009-11-09T12:15:10Z

A survey of senior campus officials responsible for managing online and distance education programs revealed some interesting findings, including almost half of the participants not knowing whether their program is profitable.

Results of the 2009 Managing Online Education Survey, a collaborative initiative of the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) and The Campus Computing Project, were discussed Oct. 29 in a live online seminar featuring Kenneth C. Green, founding director of The Campus Computing Project, and Russell Poulin, interim executive director of WCET.

The goal of the survey was not so much to quantify the growth of online education, though there were a few questions on that and not surprisingly 95 percent reported an increase in the number of enrollments, but to get to the heart of the operational, instructional, and IT issues for online programs.

The survey covered a wide range of important planning and policy issues including faculty training, support services, tuition, ADA compliance, and assessment. Some of the key findings are:

Organizational structures for online education programs are in a state of flux with 45 percent having restructured their management of online programs in the past two years and 52 percent anticipating they will restructure in the next years. Further, 29 percent reorganized during the past two years and expect another reorganization soon.
In terms of profitability, only 1.6 percent report that their institution lost money on online programs. Forty-five percent report having profitable programs and a surprisingly large 45 percent of campuses don’t know if they’re making or losing money with online education.
More than three-fourths (77 percent) of institutions in the survey report that they limit class size for online courses, with 37 students being the average enrollment cap.
Tech support, a critical but sometimes overlooked factor to online student success, ranged from 24/7 support provided by 36 percent of institutions to Mon.-Fri. 9-5 support offered by 17 percent.
Slightly over half (53 percent) of the institutions surveyed report mandatory technology training for faculty teaching online programs.
Despite the emergence of a whole host of low-cost and easy-to-use web-based technologies, online courses rely heavily on traditional print materials. Eighty-five percent say textbooks are “widely used” in their programs.

Green and Poulin noted that while anecdotal information about how different campuses are managing their online programs is plentiful, they hope the data gathered with the survey will be “a catalyst for conversations” with regards to campus planning and policy decisions.

The survey data are based on responses from 182 senior campus officials at two- and four-year public and private U.S. colleges and universities who were surveyed in September and October 2009.

Taking a Learner-Centered Approach in Online Courses

2009-11-10T12:57:11Z

One of the biggest changes in recent years has been the adoption of student-centered instruction. Here are a few tips for taking this approach to teaching in your online courses:

Be a constant presence for suggestions and insights. Look at your role as that of the coordinator of a cooperative: give initial directions and guidance, but also constantly pop in to give kudos for good student postings, suggestions to help their learning, and applause for discussion or team postings that developed into long threads from one initial student’s thoughts. Be sure to point out the importance of supporting and thanking fellow classmates for ideas. All of this will go a long way in keeping students engaged and helping them to learn more.

Post mini-lectures that translate into ultra important. If I were to see lecture after lecture posted by a professor, I’d sooner take out my eyes with a hot poker than read them. Lectures like this become so much blah-blah-blah, and students soon find it difficult to absorb all the information. But by posting mini-lectures (one to three paragraphs centered on one subject), the students will recognize these as important because of their infrequency, be more eager to read them, and will certainly absorb—and remember—their contents easier. (Hint: you might want to mention these in your welcoming email.)

Offer an engaging variety of assigned and supplemental readings. Choose your assigned readings—and how much to read—wisely. And also always offer a variety of supplemental readings that are engaging, interesting, and perhaps fun—the students won’t have to read them, but you can make them want to.

Offer reality-based education approaches to material covered in class. By stressing connections between what students learn from the assigned material and its use in the real world, you are telling students they must rely on their critical thinking, interacting with others in class, and further research to “fill in the blanks” of what they have not been implicitly taught. Hold them responsible for getting this information—but don’t punish them if they get it wrong: you want them to have “A-ha!” moments of learning, not “What’s the use of trying?” thoughts.

Get students actively involved in the course. By having students offer suggestions—readings, websites, poetry, theories, organizations, etc.—to enhance various portions of the course they become more invested in this cooperative of a class you are coordinating and guiding. The bonuses are that students will be learning in deeper layers of what the course initially offered, they have another internal motivator to stay engaged in the course, and you pick up additional items for inclusion the next time you teach the course.

Know that students have a variety of learning styles. student-centered instruction is not a panacea; some students will, in fact, simply work better with a faculty-centered instruction approach. But the times they are, indeed, changing, and by placing more of the learning process on the students you offer students more options to explore and expand their own learning capabilities.

Excerpted from Teaching Online With Errol: Online Teaching: Perfect for Student-Centered Learning! Online Classroom, Dec. 2007.

Google Voice User? Get The Quick Reference Card

2009-11-02T22:40:15Z

If you’re a Google Voice user like me, you’ll be glad to print out this quick reference card that gives you all the menu options when you call the service to listen to voicemail or change settings, or receive calls.

For example, when you receive a call with Google Voice you can hear who’s calling before you answer. Hit 1 to answer the call, or hit 2 to send them to voicemail. Easy to remember. But you can also hit 3 to send them to voicemail and listen in. Or 4 to answer the call and record it. Four is too many things for me to remember, which is why I’m printing this out and putting it in my wallet.

Thanks for CoolGeex for creating this!

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Twitter Reveals More Lists Power With A Widget

2009-11-03T00:32:37Z

Since it was turned on for all users late last week, everyone is talking about Twitter’s new Lists feature. Most people seem to like it, but some have no idea what it’s good for. Perhaps those people will understand a bit more about Lists potential with a new widget that Twitter has launched today.

The List Widget is exactly what you’d expect: A widget that you can place on your blog that displays a list of your choosing. One nice thing is that this can be a list you made or one any user has made (that is public). If you simply type in a user’s name, it will show their lists in a drop down menu. You then give the list a title, a caption, customize its look and feel, and you’re good to go.

But here’s why this widget is pretty cool: It basically is a way for you to create your own curated Twitter stream anywhere on the web. Obviously, you won’t be able to do things like tweet from it (though there is a reply button that comes up when you hover over a tweet — this directs you back to Twitter), but people are already making some great Twitter lists (like us and Scoble) and this is a great way to put them to work without having to go to Twitter itself.

You can choose how many tweets to show, set the intervals, hide hashtags — there are a good number of options. Best of all, these widgets offer something that Twitter itself doesn’t: Realtime auto-updating. Basically, this widget is kind of like a better, more customizable version of Twitter.com.

The List widget joins Twitter other widgets for profiles, search, and favorites. Find them all here. I’ve embedded our TechCrunch team list below.

CrunchBase Information

Twitter

Information provided by CrunchBase

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Evaluation of the Use of Semantic Web Technology in a Collaborative Learning Environment

2009-11-03T03:51:17Z

This screencast is a presentation given by Andrew Lumpe and David Wicks at the 2009 Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning in Orlando, Florida. The presentation objectives are to:

Describe the application of a semantic web technologies in a collaborative learning environment.
Report the results on student learning.
Provide recommendations for future research and applications of semantic web technologies in educational environments.

(32:20)

Favorite Open Educational Resources

2009-11-06T22:17:37Z

http://s3.amazonaws.com/estock/fspid9/16/98/75/2/sharealike-1698752-o.jpg

I’ve been using free educational resources in my presentations for a few years. Several professors have asked me for a list of Open Educational Resources (OER) that I have shared in various workshops. Here is a list of ten of my current favorites:

EveryStockPhoto.com – Search engine that can be used to find free images on the web. http://www.everystockphoto.com/
Incompetech is a collection of Creative Commons licensed music. http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/
iTunes U is a collection of audio and video content from higher education faculty around the world that can be freely used for educational purposes. http://deimos3.apple.com/indigo/main/main.xml Many SPU professors are freely sharing their work in iTunes U. You can find it at: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browsev2/spu-public
Khan Academy provides 800+ YouTube tutorials covering math, science, and finance problems. http://www.khanacademy.org/index.html
MERLOT is a peer-reviewed searchable collection of online learning materials. http://merlot.org
Search by Creative Commons provides a convenient way to access search engines that include CC licensed materials. http://search.creativecommons.org
Webcast.Berkeley is a collection of podcasts and webcasts from the University of California Berkeley. http://webcast.berkeley.edu/
Wikimedia Commons is a media repository for public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips). http://commons.wikimedia.org
YouTube EDU is a collection of videos and channels from higher education institutions http://www.youtube.com/education?b=400
MIT OpenCourseware is a website that contains almost all content from MIT courses. http://ocw.mit.edu/

An E-Texbook Program Aims to Benefit Students and Professors

2009-10-20T18:15:00Z

The University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh’s College of Business is creating a new type of e-textbook that will give professors more control of their content while also saving students hundreds of dollars in the process.

The program, a result of a nearly $300,000 grant from U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, will commission professors to create texts personalized for specific classes and put them in a digital format that will

The Netflix of Academic Journals Opens Shop

2009-10-29T18:00:00Z

By opening the largest online rental service for scientific, technical, and research journals, the company Deep Dyve is hoping to do for academic publications what Netflix has done for movies: make them easily accessible and inexpensive for everyone.

The Web site has been an academic-journal search engine since 2005 and unveiled its rental program this week. Now anyone can “rent” an article—which means you can view it on your

Tune In November 13: Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing

2009-10-28T15:45:03Z

Universities have served important functions in society for more than a thousand years. They have done so in part by creating places that promote reflection, discussion, discovery and learning. For many people, the university-as-place is central to the purposes of the university. The university is also an idea and, increasingly, ideas—in the Internet—have enormous power to stimulate learning and discovery. Indeed, what many now describe as “Web 2.0” is a view that the web is evolving into a social environment that has the potential to extend the influence and reach of institutions and individuals.

New ELI 7 Things... Brief Explores Google Wave

2009-10-30T16:08:35Z

Google Wave is a web-based application that represents a rethinking of electronic communication. Users create online spaces called “waves,” which include multiple discrete messages and components that constitute a running, conversational document. Users access waves through the web, resulting in a model of communication in which rather than sending separate copies of multiple messages to different people, the content resides in a single space. Wave offers a compelling platform for personal learning environments because it provides a single location for collecting information from diverse sources while accommodating a variety of formats, and it makes interactive coursework a possibility for nontechnical students.

ELI Releases New White Paper on Learning Environments

2009-10-30T20:16:54Z

ELI has released a new white paper, Learning Environments: Where Space, Technology, and Culture Converge, by Thomas Warger (EduServe International) and Gregory Dobbin (EDUCAUSE).

Learning about Interactive Whiteboards for the Classroom

2009-11-02T00:09:02Z

Examining the “State of the SMART(board)” in education.

Back in April, I researched and blogged about interactive whiteboard tools that are available as online applications. These are great tools for the classroom that are quick and easy to implement, and best of all, they are free or low cost. However, the functionality available with these applications is only a fraction of that provided by many of the installable interactive whiteboard systems available today.