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"Some study techniques accelerate learning, whereas others are just a waste of time-but which ones are which? An unprecedented review maps out the best pathways to knowledge"

Wikipedia stands as an undeniable success in online participation and collaboration. However, previous attempts at studying collaboration within Wikipedia have focused on simple metrics like rigor (i.e., the number of revisions in an article's revision history) and diversity (i.e., the number of authors that have contributed to a given article) or have made generalizations about collaboration within Wikipedia based upon the content validity of a few select articles. By looking more closely at metrics associated with each extant Wikipedia article (N=3,427,236) along with all revisions (N=225,226,370), this study attempts to understand what collaboration within Wikipedia actually looks like under the surface. Findings suggest that typical Wikipedia articles are not rigorous, in a collaborative sense, and do not reflect much diversity in the construction of content and macro-structural writing, leading to the conclusion that most articles in Wikipedia are not reflective of the collaborative efforts of the community but, rather, represent the work of relatively few contributors.

"A recent study by Online Colleges finds that more US college students prefer a hybrid of online/offline education than a pure experience in either direction. This may be a surprise for those that rave about the pros or perils of online classes, but a hybrid learning environment really helps capture the benefits of each."

This paper examines undergraduate student use of laptop computers during a lecture-style class that includes substantial problem-solving activities and graphic-based content. The study includes both a self-reported use component collected from student surveys as well as a monitored use component collected via activity monitoring "spyware" installed on student laptops. We categorize multitasking activities into productive (course-related) versus distractive (non course-related) tasks. Quantifiable measures of software multitasking behavior are introduced to measure the frequency of student multitasking, the duration of student multitasking, and the extent to which students engage in distractive versus productive tasks.

The Observatory's first project, sponsored by ebrary and Baker & Taylor and undertaken by CIBER, was to quantify the impact of the world-wide recession on libraries. The research received widespread acclaim and was in published in a number of international journals and cited in The Scientist. The topic this year, social media and how they are impacting upon research practice is just as big.The aims of this study are to answer the following questions: * are social media impacting upon researcher workflows?   * if so, how should publishers and librarians respond?* how influential are age and other factors in shaping the demand for social media?

"The lessons employ clever game mechanics to create an effective user experience. I'm like a broken record at this point: designers, filmmakers, and creative communicators of all stripes should to learn how to code. Clever tools and study guides abound for helping non-hackers start getting their hands dirty on the command line. But speaking personally, none of them have done the trick of getting me to actually just do it. Why? Because they're not interactive. Reading a book or watching a video series (no matter how well-designed) just isn't "sticky" enough to get me to stick with it. "

The way we represent, organize and share our knowledge propels us forward. It can either constrain or extend our abilities to think and create. In 1964, in his groundbreaking new media studies, Marshall McLuhan proposed that it is the medium, not just the content it carries, that impacts our lives. This is captured most eloquently in his most famous line: "The medium is the message."

In December of last year, Google released its new Google Earth Engine, an application created specifically with scientific research in mind. This new product provides an unprecedented 25 years of satellite images with the goal of enabling more precise climate modeling, based on change studies and mapping trends of the Earth's environment with a principle focus on identifying areas of deforestation.

The present study was motivated by our observation that, in spite of the increasing popularity and impact of Henry Jenkins' New Media Literacies framework, there was a lack of an appropriate quantitative measurement tool to assess these new media literacy skills.

It took me almost 16 years to retrieve and digitize video footage of the late American graphic designer Paul Rand. As an undergraduate student at Art Center College of Design (Europe)* in Montreux, Switzerland, I got introduced to Paul Rand and his wife Marion during a hot and dry summer in 1994. Since I was studying both the basics of film and graphical user interface design, I was asked to shuttle Paul Rand around and to document his visit on campus and his lecture that included a presentation and video (interview with Steve Jobs) about the creation of the NeXT logo.

"CHANDLER, Ariz. - Amy Furman, a seventh-grade English teacher here, roams among 31 students sitting at their desks or in clumps on the floor. They're studying Shakespeare's "As You Like It" - but not in any traditional way. "

In January, a time when many scientists concentrate on grant proposals, Jennifer D. Calkins and Jennifer M. Gee, both biologists, were busy designing quail T-shirts and trading cards. The T-shirts went for $12 each and the trading cards for $15 in a fund-raising effort resembling an online bake sale. The $4,873 they raised, mostly from small donations, will pay their travel, food, lab and equipment expenses to study the elegant quail this fall in Mexico.

How does a school system with poor performance become good? And how does one with good performance become excellent?

DENIZENS of the Twitter-verse, please be advised: Whether you are a Libyan celebrating the demise of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, a New Zealand office worker sleepily starting your day or a California teenager trying out the latest slang, your words are being analyzed.