Group items tagged

a new service that allows you to build layers on top of Google Maps.   Using Build A Map you can add information from data sets, add shapes, and add custom labels. The service is currently in a private beta so you do have to register your email address and wait for an invitation to try it

Showing students how to read critically and formulate research queries is part of the teaching function of college libraries. But how do you teach students to read critically that which has no text? She divided the students into groups and instructed them to write "problem statements" relating to important information that was not provided by the video. Then, with May's guidance, they translated those questions into keyword searches that might help them locate where in the library they might find answers.

Even better, the data visualisation tools that can manipulate and present that information are getting easier to use and available to anyone. And it is in the social and political aspects of data visualisation that its real value emerges. "If you make these tools and data available to a broader range of people you are just going to get better ideas," said Dr Austwick.

The LMS market is in flux. According to a 2010 survey conducted by the Campus Computing Project, Blackboard's dominance of the higher education market declined from 71 percent in 2006 to 57 percent in 2010. Open source alternatives Moodle and Sakai have continued to make inroads, as has Desire2Learn--together they now control over 30 percent of the market. The entry of Instructure, whose Canvas LMS recently scooped up the business of the Utah Education Network, provides an additional plot twist. And hanging over it all is the imminent migration of hundreds of legacy Blackboard clients to new systems as their existing platforms are retired.

The new Google service, announced last week, is similar in many ways to Facebook. It provides a way to share updates, photos, and recommendations with friends and colleagues. One key difference is that Google Plus makes it easier to share information with isolated subgroups of contacts, rather than sending all updates to every online "friend."

Google facelifts and new features as of 7/7/11

Here's a very slick new tool that allows students and teachers to share a Google Doc or Presentation, record themselves along side the presentation or doc and email or embed the video on a blog. It's called Movenote, and it's free.

Made possible by the Ford Scholars Program, a summer research opportunity funded by Vassar, Professor of Earth Science Jeff Walker and Ford Scholar Maura Toomey '15 worked this past summer to make the original journals of John Burrough, a Hudson Valley based naturalist and writer more accessible by digitizing and placing them online in a searchable format. journal here http://www.hrvh.org/cdm/ref/collection/vassar/id/1008 

100 curators from across the Museum to talk about 100 works of art that changed the way they see the world.

Ted Mann might be interested in this. I sent it to him and Mike G

Bill of Rights & Principles 4 Learning in the Digital Age

After a whirlwind nine months that has witnessed a rapid rebirth of online education at elite U.S. universities in the form of massively open online courses, or MOOCs, Harvard University has thrown its hat into the ring - along with the largest investment yet in technology aimed at bringing interactive online education to hundreds of thousands of students at a time for free.

How can people learn from material and content delivered directly to their mobile devices? There are many organizations interested in this subject, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is one of them. This website provides access to their working paper series on mobile learning, instructional videos, and external websites. The question is a timely one, as there is the hope that this mode of delivery can "supplement and enrich formal school and make learning more accessible, equitable, personalized and flexible for students everywhere." In the Working Paper Series area visitors can read four different papers, including "Mobile Learning for Teachers in Latin America." Additionally, the site contains recent issues of the Mobile Learning Newsletter

One of the great benefits of digital publishing is its flexibility and the capability for ebooks to bring something for every reader. Like Amazon's Kindle Singles or Atavist's shorts, these ebooks are generally in the range of 5,000 to 30,000 words and are reviving interest in a variety of short form literature

2012 will likely see an acceleration of structured, push button, social curation across the web. Why? Because most users don't want to take much effort to produce content, and consuming content in a structured manner (especially photos) is also much faster.

2 students write notes on board before quiz.