BlendKit

Lengthy, substantive piece on blogging for educators, starting from "what is a blog," continuing through Web2.0 tools, and ending with Personal Learning Networks. Something for everyone here.

An alternative schema to the "digital native" vs. "digital immigrant" dichotomy. Emphasis is placed upon one's own adaptation to technology-rich culture using the axes of "access" and "participation" to form a classification quadrant. Some observations are particularly relevant for participation in informal learning via Personal Learning Networks and open, online courses as well as in technology-mediated academic courses.

I like this schema! (I tend to like anything that moves away from rigid, binary-type either/or dichotomies, where we are either include/excluded, with few options for growth and movement.) I am really enjoying BlendKit2012 and only wish I had more time to explore.

Improving Schools Through Blended Learning Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, 12:30-1:30 p.m. ET Click here for more information about this chat. Note: No special equipment other than Internet access is needed to participate in any of our text-based chats. Participants may begin submitting questions the morning of the chat.

As we look at quality assurance in Wk 5, the last two pillars provide ways to answer the question as to whether or not our teaching in the blended course was effective. While the 5 are really aimed at an overall view of online course quality, they also map to the blended environment. Plus, it's a short read! :)

Short but useful ideas on the changing role of a teacher.

Tandy, C. & Meacham, M. (2009). Removing the Barriers for students with disabilities: Accessible online and web‐enhanced courses. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 29:3, 313-328. doi:10.1080/08841230903022118.

New direct (pdf) link for George Siemens' "Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning" and explanation from George of what happened to the original text linked from Ch02 of the BlendKit Reader.

What is Poll Everywhere? The fastest way to create stylish real-time experiences for events using mobile devices Poll Everywhere replaces expensive proprietary audience response hardware with standard web technology. It's the easiest way to gather live responses in any venue: conferences, presentations, classrooms, radio, tv, print - anywhere.

This website links to many gamification resources under the 'bookshelf'. It relates gamification to business, marketing and education. Interesting ideas about how "badges" can motivate students.

danah body (she prefers lowercase.) is a highly regarded thinker on all things internet. In this piece she addresses the dynamics involved in being connected to a "flow" or stream of networked information.

The results of questionnaire responses and document analysis from eight Canadian universities form the basis for this 2011 report on the state of blended learning in Canadian higher education.

A technical and philosophical implementation guide for media authors who wish to use Creative Commons licensing. Of particular note are the detailed practical instructions for marking specific file types with a CC license.

This brief article provides an overview of Creative Commons relevant to educators. While copyright laws provide some provision for educational uses, materials (e.g., texts, videos, audio, images, etc.) released under one of the Creative Commons licenses are actually much easier to incorporate into course content. Rather than just linking to a source, you may have the licensed right to incorporate and edit the material directly.

If you haven't seen this five minute video and if you're interested in interaction with learners, it's worth a look. A professor at the University of Texas - Dallas documents what happens when she decides to experiment with Twitter in the classroom.

Simmons College instructor Karen Teeley describes her decision-making process for deciding what goes online and what goes face-to-face in her blended learning course. This case study features short video clips, complete text transcript, and an example simulation exercise from Teeley's course. In addition, she provides a sample welcome letter, student expectations statement, and a couple of evaluation rubrics from her blended course.

Why should we implement games for learning? How should we do this? What games are appropriate for my needs? This new issue of eLearning Papers should help to find answers to such questions. The potential of Game Based Learning (GBL) is still underestimated.