Social bookmarking. When you save a Web site as a favorite
or bookmark, it's added to a list that stays within that browser. Use another
computer, and you don't have access to that bookmark. When you use a
social-bookmarking service, you save your bookmarks on that server, making them
available to you wherever you access the Web, and allowing you to share them
with others.
Ask your students to create accounts on a social-bookmarking service and to
bookmark Web sites, news articles, and other resources relevant to the course
you're teaching. Create a unique "tag" for your course and have your students
use it, so that their bookmarks can be easily found. Ask students to apply
multiple tags to the resources they bookmark, as a way to help them locate their
bookmarks quickly and to prepare them for the kind of keyword searching they'll
need to do when using library databases. If you're teaching a face-to-face or
hybrid class, be sure to spend some class time having students share their
latest finds, so they can see the connections between this work outside class
and classroom discussions.
Students most likely won't find this difficult. After all, you're asking them
to surf the Web and tag pages they like. That's something they do via Facebook
every day. By having them share course-related content with their peers in the
class, however, you'll tap into their desires to be part of your course's
learning community. And you might be surprised by the resources they find and
share.
Thieme Hennis on 11 Jun 13"The Open Educational Resources Research Hub (OER Research Hub) provides a focus for research, designed to give answers to the overall question 'What is the impact of OER on learning and teaching practices?' and identify the particular influence of openness. We do this by working in collaboration with projects across four education sectors (K12, college, higher education and informal) extending a network of research with shared methods and shared results. By the end of this research we will have evidence for what works and when, but also established methods and instruments for broader engagement in researching the impact of openness on learning. OER are not just another educational innovation. They influence policy and change practices. In previous research (OpenLearn, Bridge to Success and OLnet) we have seen changes in institutions, teacher practice and in the effectiveness of learning. We integrate research alongside action to discover and support changes in broader initiatives. Our framework provides the means to gather data and the tools to tackle barriers. The project combines: A targeted collaboration program with existing OER projects An internationalfellowship program Networking to make connections A hub for research data and OER excellence in practice The collaborations cover different sectors and issues, these include: the opening up of classroom based teaching to open content; the large-scale decision points implied by open textbooks for community colleges; the extension of technology beyond textbook through eBook and simulation; the challenge of teacher training in India; and the ways that OER can support less formal approaches to learning. By basing good practice on practical experience and research we can help tackle practical problems whilst building the evidence bank needed by all."
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