EET Learns

"As many of my colleagues know, I have not been a big fan of Twitter for academic purposes. Why? The impression I had is: * Twitter is tacky. Great if you want to know what Paris Hilton's dog is up to, otherwise: aahhh, no. * Twitter is unfiltered. Too much chaff, no wheat! * Twitter is too open. Students will be encouraged to let loose, to mix topics, to lose the thread that an instructor can maintain in a more tightly controlled discussion forum In the interest of an open mind, lately I have been exploring Twitter a bit, and while I still basically believe the points above, I have found some uses for Twitter that might be helpful."

Take Charge of Your Science," fliers shouted. Promotional ads in the conference programs urged the society's 25,000 members to join the APS Wikipedia Initiative and "make sure Wikipedia-the world's No. 1 online encyclopedia-represents psychology fully and accurately."

"The applications tested by the university encompassed: * Blackboard Mobile Learn, on which all clients simultaneously accessed course curriculum and viewed on-demand streaming video; * Video-based curriculum, video delivered by Distribution Access, a Canadian educational video provider; * Apple Facetime for video conferencing; * Apple AirPlay for wireless streaming of multimedia content to an Apple TV connected to a classroom projector; * Live, local video content streamed through Haivision Network Video gear; * ResponseWare real-time polling from Turning Technologies. The university used VeriWave WaveInsite to set up and run the test and to measure performance. Each application was delivered simultaneously to all 100 devices. According to a statement issued by Aruba, the applications performed "with the highest quality and without any noticeable jitter, delay, or frame loss.""

"Teaching This group is the most directly connected to the act of teaching. 1. Grade Book - iPad: Gradekeeper, Android: Grade Book for Professors 2. Annotation - mark up student-submitted PDF files with highlights, text and drawings - iPad: GoodReader or iAnnotate PDF ($$), Android: RepliGo Reader 3. Attendance - some apps even make a seating chart with photos - iPad: Attendance, or Smart Seat, Android: Attendance 4. Course Management System - if your campus has turned on this functionality you can access course content and more - Blackboard Mobile | Learn (both platforms) 5. Polling - use tablets and smartphones like clickers in the classroom - iPad: eClicker ($$), Android: Student Clicker"

"Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms This delightfully illustrated video entertains while educating. The video does a wonderful job of explaining how today's factory-like education model is outmoded and how it needs to evolve into a more personalized model if we are going to take it to a new level. Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education This video discusses "The Hole In The Wall" experiment that Mitra started in New Delhi in 1999. Children deprived of learning opportunities available in other parts of the world nevertheless figured out the computer at their disposal and started using it to learn and to teach each other. These results repeated themselves as the experiment was conducted in various other locales. Kids can and will teach kids. How can we take advantage of this to improve on education across the world?"

"The Rental Phenomenon In the past two years, the post-secondary textbook rental market has exploded. Driven by the outcry over book prices, federal legislation, readily available pricing information on the Internet, and sophisticated web-based rental management platforms, old and new competitors are disrupting the $10 billion college textbook business. Book rental isn't really a new phenomenon-a few college stores have been renting books since the Civil War. The National Association of College Stores (NACS) proclaimed fall 2010 as the "Year of the Rental." Players include long-timers like Follett and Budgetext, institutional stores and fast-growing start-ups. BookRenter, started in 2008, netted $40 million from investors in a funding round this past February. Chegg, started in 2007, has raised $200+ million in venture capital and attracted senior management from Yahoo and Netflix. The same drivers are growing trade in used books, eBooks, and online instructional content. Rental is also driving new business models for sourcing and distributing educational materials that may carry the industry forward into digital. Having book inventory isn't necessarily required-at least one high-flying firm, BookRenter, exists mainly as an online marketplace. Read on to see how this change in distribution is impacting the higher education market. Next month we'll look at what all this means for K-12."

"Get to know Canvas The simple, open LMS from Instructure * Clean, intuitive interface * Comprehensive feature set * Modern technology"

Links to many resources for enhancing PPTs, along with other technology related topics.

"If you prefer the second theory, then you might consider grades a useful instrument of positive or negative reinforcement, but the only thing that matters is what students actually learn. There is stuff that every adult ought to know, and college is the best delivery system for getting that stuff into people's heads. "

Weird. Why is this titled Evernote? Isn't it Netvibes?

Are you implying that this is my fault?

yes . .

Old vs New Ways of Thinking About…

"Social networking tools aren't going away any time soon, they appear to be here for the long term. But do these kinds of applications really belong in the classroom? I think they do, and here's a few reasons why:"

"This brief summarizes the main themes from the EDUCAUSE Mobile Computing 5-Day Sprint, held April 25-29, 2011. This learning experience brought together presenters and hundreds of participants, who exchanged ideas and information via webinars, online conversations, Twitter, and blog posts. The central message from the event are that mobile computing has enormous potential; that it requires IT departments to embrace new roles; that many of the best practices for computing generally apply equally to mobile computing; and that attention must be paid to issues including infrastructure and security in order to support an effective mobile computing program."

How to kill innovation, in five easy steps