"it's women who worry most about maintaining "authority," which simply reinforces "patriarchal" teaching methods and squelches critical thinking among students. I know that as a rookie teacher early in my graduate career, I was terrified of losing any control because it would reveal my inexperience. I think that is a fairly common phenomenon for any young teacher (take a look at how harshly grad TAs tend to grade, for example), not just women."

Great approach to helping instructors understand some basic issues of student privacy and the role of social media. This kind of argument might encourage people to assign the use of (and contribution to) open educational resources. "FERPA was never intended to place students into the box of a physical or online classroom to prevent them from learning from the public."

Research Seminars at University of Worcester Island Forthcoming sessions in 2011. February 24th Resistance - who has it, why it occurs and what can we do about it (Gann McGann - Mark Childs) March Thursday 31st - Supporting distributed team working in 3D virtual worlds - how a 3D virtual world facilitates socialisation and team working among students working on a team project at a distance. (Shailey Garfield - Shailey Minocha from the Department of Computing at the Open University)

novelist @Margaret Atwood writes about why she started Tweeting - and the possibilities of goblins... from The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published: Chapter 2

See also statement by Labor Dept (http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20101436.htm) and White House (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/20/new-job-training-and-education-grants-program-launched) and Chronicle article at http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/2-billion-federal-program-could-be-windfall-for-open-online-learning/29167 $2-Billion Federal Program Could Be 'Windfall' for Open Online Learning January 22, 2011, 9:49 am By Marc Parry "The Obama administration is encouraging the development of high-quality immersive online-learning environments. It suggests courses with simulations, with constant feedback, and with interactive software that can tailor instruction and tutoring to individual students. It likes courses that students can use to teach themselves. And it demands open access to everything: "All online and technology-enabled courses must permit free public use and distribution, including the ability to re-use course modules, via an online repository for learning materials to be established by the federal government.... That's because the government is requiring that all work supported by the grants be made available under what's known as a "Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License," which Mr. Green described as 'one of the most open content licenses that exists.'"

Use of iPads in MGT30700 (Project Management), Fall 2010 from Aug 23-Oct 8 Report Prepared by Corey M. Angst, Ph.D. & Emily Malinowski (MBA 2011) Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame December 21, 2010 First, our findings suggest the greatest value of the iPad may not be its ability to function as an eBook reader but instead its capacity to function as a consolidator or aggregator of information. Second, a statistically significant proportion of students felt the iPad, 1) makes class more interesting, 2) encourages exploration of additional topics, 3) provides functions/tools not possible with a textbook, and 4) helps students more effectively manage their time. See wiki https://wiki.nd.edu/display/oitepublishing/iPad+Configuration+for+Pilot. It also includes an Enterprise Deployment Guide

Research report emphasizing cultural change to iPad for e-reading sharing/collaborative work (e.g., Dropbox and iAnnotate) but online final exam still chose laptops (since not collaborative effort?)

Younger generation's use of mobile devices changes access to internet info drastically - see SiteJabber's cool infographics from the Pew Internet report on Generations 2010 http://pewinternet.org/Infographics/2010/Generations-2010-Summary.aspx

Multi-use website that looks very student-oriented but is clearly useful for faculty and staff also - includes "How can I protect myself?" as well as copyright tutorial, educationa and awareness resources

Focusing on the innovations in content publishing that come from social networking and from gaming cultures: Nelson, Coupland and Alice

"The Stupski Foundation's Nelson Gonzalez talks about his session, "Program Design Collaboratives for Social Breakthroughs," which focused on the many facets of program design methods for grantmakers."

Guide for public school superintendents for cross-disciplinary professional development activities (theory + methodologies).

Stupski Fndtn staff + McREL researchers ask 2 questions: (1) How can teachers adapt the principles of effective pedagogy to differentiate instruction and meet the needs of all learners in order to help Our Kids be challened, motivated, and successful? (2) How can teachers create structured, challenging, yet nurturing classroom environments to ensure that Our Kids are engaged and successful learners? KEY FINDINGS: adaptive and differentiated instruction (theory and methodologies) in culturally relevant classroom that allows for student "role fluidity" + teacher skill in finding gaps in knowledge/skills + motivating students through engaging projects and targeted instruction (academically rigorous and nurturing) PLUS fac devt must be supported by and inclusive of school leadership. a Design Collaborative might act on 5 options: (1) Support teachers to better utilize methods and theories of culturally relevant pedagogy and differentiated instruction, (2) Implement a pedagogical program based on the notion of "role fluidity" to give students a central voice in the classroom, (3) Use technology to engage students and enhance pedagogy, (4) Guide teachers in creating academically rigorous and positive classroom learning environments, (5) Implement pedagogical programs based on developing higher order thinking and subject-specific skills. Report by Kerry Englert, Helen Apthorp, Matthew Seebaum. Dated Oct 2009

New research report from Isto Huvila of Sweden from user survey seeing to explain the different kinds of Wikipedia users and the quality of their contributions. References to other Wikipedia research are included and summarized to show the scholarly community's growing consensus about its reliability and validity. Refers also to new uses of Wikipedia, e.g., scholary journal requiring authors to post their summaries in Wikipedia.