EDUC251

I'm currently crashing this conference. Shhhhh! Hopefully I'll learn lots of things to share.

After watching Jen's post RSA Animate-21st Century Enlightenment, I saw this video and thought...hmmmm. Ideas develop because two minds are better than one! Or, we need each other and interaction on the WWW. Also, ideas can be tested to see if they work!

This website offers chat boards for teachers in all subject areas and grade le vels. It also has free lesson plans, etc. I went to the science teachers chat and looked at many of the postings, questions asked and answered, and decided that for the time being, I would join this community.

The themes/information presented in this video are ones we are all familiar with - what the video terms exponential evolution of how things fast are moving and the sheer numbers of people using the internet. The fact that this is now part of a technology shareholder meeting was very interesting, with the final message that they don't know what it all means, but it is definitely changing the world.

I thought this had merit.

This is the portfolio of an instructor I follow online. He's asking people for feedback and constructive criticism. I asked if I could paste the link here for you all. Feel free to leave him feedback and ideas at http://michaelkaechele.wordpress.com/contact/

As part of the lesson 8 readings (Boettcher, Page 146), there is a description of the characteristics of quality on discussion postings. This outline is helpful and an extremely important element of eLearning course design that I had not previously thought about so succiently. Analogously, the link above - lists the guidelines - one should consider for good job postings. I think the underlying messge is to post a depth of detail (like salary range) which with all the information we have to consider is probably quite helpful.

Using Google, I found this source for math support for online educators. It is very well put together and extremely easy to use. Although I'm not a math instructor, if I were, I would enjoy using this support program because it seems well organized and flows in a logical fashion. There are links to all of an instructor's basic questions.

Pearson's got some decent resources to go along with their text books. I've known several instructors who've used MyMathLab and enjoyed it. Many instructors are surprised when I ask them what online resources are provided by their textbook publishers. The publishers are scrambling to keep up and add value, because they know they are at risk for becoming obsolete, especially in math.

"In a few weeks, TED will be launching an online forum. We're calling it the TED-ED Brain Trust. We're seeking the expertise of visionary educators, students, organizations, filmmakers & other creative professionals to guide, galvanize & ultimately lead this exciting new initiative."

Thanks for sharing this intentionally forming community. How exciting! The Ken Robinson lecture on education "killing the imagination" I show to my students because it's all about holistic learning. I will definately sign up for this online forum. Thanks for posting.

I have always found the TED site and videos very helpful...they have a purpose and I can find some great videos for courses.

This site is an interesting reference and you can also sign-up for periodic emails on topics. I find that I will read an email at times, whereas going to a website and possibly logging in is more overhead. One specific article that might be of interest that this site offers is Learning with Technology: Tools and Stragies to Improve Student Learning. (http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/teaching-with-technology-tools-and-strategies-to-improve-student-learning)

This is one of the better ones for k-12 skills and they are creating a community as they go.

This is related to some of our inquiry last week about open courses. ELI is an important conference. I hope you get a chance to check out some of the free sessions online. "Educating in the Open: Philosophies, Innovations, and Stories February 14-16, 2011 * Washington, D.C. or Online Free Conference Streaming SessionsJoin us for the ELI 2011 Annual Meeting "Educating in the Open: Philosophies, Innovations, and Stories," where we as a community will explore the theme of openness in Washington, D.C., February 14-16. If you can't attend in person, participate online. We'll explore the many meanings of "openness": open textbooks, open curriculum, open research, and open resources, as well as openness to new ideas. Today's technologies have transformed the way we interact and engage with the world around us. New devices, services, and effective practices have increased access to information while new policies and philosophies that explore openness have accelerated that change. The growth of social networks and virtual communities has transformed the learning environment into an interactive place to share and build content and community using collaborative systems. * What are the opportunities and the challenges associated with educating in the open? * How might our learners benefit from becoming producers and consumers in this environment? * How can we, as a community of teaching and learning professionals, collaborate more openly? * What evidence do we have that the trend toward openness is having the impact we hope for? Through a highly interactive and engaging program, we'll also examine the value of cross-campus collaboration in the creation of new learning environments and explore strategies to develop campus environments built on engagement, collaboration, authenticity, and co-creation."

Precisely how we communicate in these moments of historic crisis and transformation is important. The medium that carries the message shapes and defines as well as the message itself. The instantaneous nature of how social media communicate self-broadcast ideas, unlimited by publication deadlines and broadcast news slots, explains in part the speed at which these revolutions have unravelled, their almost viral spread across a region. It explains, too, the often loose and non-hierarchical organisation of the protest movements unconsciously modelled on the networks of the web.

"Google Body is a detailed 3D model of the human body. You can peel back anatomical layers,zoom in, click to identify anatomy, or search for muscles, organs, bones and more. You can alsoshare the exact scene you are viewing by copying and pasting the URL."

We worry that IM, texting, Facebook are spoiling human intimacy, but Stefana Broadbent's research shows how communication tech is capable of cultivating deeper relationships, bringing love across barriers like distance and workplace rules.

This is worth checking out if you're teaching K-12. Actually, it's pretty interesting for higher ed, as well, but designed for K-12. I was around when they originally started building it, and it's been fun to watch it evolve. Good people on this project!

My online community is a movie review group on Facebook, and like the title, the group is about reviewing movies, as well as introducing new movies (usually with trailers) to other group members. There is a separate discussion board, but people usually write on the wall, which is more convenient. I can look at other people's comments on certain movie that I would want to watch, as well as find out about new movies that could be coming out soon. Occasionally, some peopel post advertisement posts, since this is a group that is open to any facebook user, but most of the posts are movie-related posts.