Group items tagged

Published in March of 2011, this article reports on the results of a survey conducted of students at the University of Scranton on the strategies used by postsecondary students to gather information using Internet-capable cell phones, or smartphones. The article concluded: Information literacy instructors should become familiar with new search methods (such as quick response codes) to help students use them effectively and efficiently. Students should be encouraged to review a range of search results, particularly when searching for academic information. Information literacy instructors should help students understand how to evaluate information, especially when it is presented in a nontraditional form, such as a native app. Students may need assistance from educators in applying information literacy skills they have learned while searching on a laptop or desktop to the mobile environment.

This very short and concise article has been in my thinking as I've worked with students especially recently and pulled together other resources on Common Core. Amidst the glut of information and feeding frenzy tendencies, structure and guidance is needed from all of us to be deliberate. As we design instruction, consider learning expectations, select tools and resources and raise the bar for students, "re-impress upon digital natives the importance of thinking in absence of endless - and endlessly accessible - data sources." I urge you to shake up completely the animal, planet or country report. (I doubt that you are doing this cookie-cutter work, but spread the word). If a simple Google search can answer the question, throw out the assignment.

Divided as researchers sort out whether readers of tablets or textbooks perform better. As well as hidden costs of mobile devices.

I tried sharing comments using Evernote as an experiment. I don't think it worked, so here is what I had posted there: The Future of Education: Tablets vs. Textbooks BY MARGARET ROCK "Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt tested an interactive, digital version of an Algebra 1 textbook for Apple's iPad in California's Riverside Unified School District. Students who used the iPad version scored 20 percent higher on standardized tests versus students who learned with traditional textbooks." * This is interesting. It's noted later in the article that students who read a more traditional textbook in digital format, without the benefit of the bells and whistles of a book designed to play on the strengths of digital media, did no better than those reading paper books. My thinking on this is that the books that moved beyond just the traditional text and images were more intriguing because they allowed students to interact in more diverse ways with the information. One of the reasons I enjoy reading on my Nook is that it more closely resembles the experience of reading on paper. The advantage over paper is that I can annotate and highlight without damaging the book, plus I like the dictionary feature. Reading a book on a computer is not as rewarding as reading on a good quality reader. The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt folks add much more to the experience through videos, audio links, animations, and links to ancillary information while maintaining the options I mentioned in my Nook experience. It's more engaging because there's more to do and more of the senses are being addressed. "A small but growing number of researchers are uncovering evidence that readers are better able to remember what they read in printed books long-term when compared to materials read via an electronic screen, raising questions about tablets in the classroom." "For example, Kate Garland, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Leicester in England, conducted a study on the effects of e-books

The Future of Education: Tablets vs. Textbooks

Defining mobile learning

The start of a conversation about teaching and learning with mobile tools.

I do think of my phone as more of an output device than the tablet or pc. Now It is becoming a bit more of an "input also" device!

"It wasn't so long ago that Chris Grant would regularly take a whole lab's worth of equipment with him into the wilderness. Today, he just takes an iPad." This article discusses how scientists are just beginning to use mobile devices, specifically the iPad, to assist them in field research. It is exciting to see how they are using it, and how new this is - even for "real" scientists. I feel like i am in good company! This is also exciting because I may be able to use this kind of information to acquire funding for field research studies and equipment for BEEC..

Livebinder with an extensive list of special education information and the ipad

Great sire with lots of information relating to elearning

I found David's Characteristics of Communication over FM Radio vs. Mobile Phones Table to be very enlightening. He really managed to distill the powerful differences between broadcasting information and collaboratively creating information. It clearly shines a light on the limitations of traditional, lecture-based learning and the flexibility of mobile learning.

"Video is the way that we, increasingly, communicate stories, news, information and even ideas to one another. It's powerful because it often transcends barriers of language and of culture. It is universal and powerful. It drives everything from politics to religion, and much in between"

This article is interesting to me because I believe that access to information cannot be device-specific. Making information or communication reliant on a specific format limits the ability to interact on a truly global platform. Imagine the missed opportunities and conversations that would ensue if iPad owners were able to communicate with only people who have Apple devices. The same holds true for Google and Android, Microsoft, or any other current or emerging platform or system. As I've mentioned in other posts, and will most likely mention again: it's not about the device.

"One of Android's missions is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Accessibility is the measure of how successfully a product can be used by people with varying abilities. Our mission applies to all users-including people with disabilities such as visual impairment, color deficiency, hearing loss, and limited dexterity."

Adobe, makers of Photoshop and other creative software, comment on the SAMR model.

Curation and collecting tools for eportfolio. especially helpful if you are using mobile tools to create eportfolios.

Frank Shared this amazing article that will inform our work in this class in future weeks.

includes a link to a 2 hour audio Global Education Conference via Blackboard Collaborative

More information about how using our Diigo Group which I create in many of my classes

This article argues that mobile computing is making learning personal and informal. Sure beats impersonal and formal.

Direct quote: "Last year, we rolled out an ereader lending program in my fifth and sixth grade school library, and I plan to share here the ups, downs, and what-to-look-out-fors we encountered along the way. We'll talk planning and implementation of the program-but first, a bit of background. Let's hop into the librarian time machine (fashioned from an old card catalog I found on Etsy) and go back to August 2011…." This article spoke clearly to me with its tongue-in-cheek, soup to nuts look at a librarian's dilemma. Clearly, the votes not in yet and might never be. What to choose, how best to manage??? A very graphic, accessible article about the challenges of selection, purchasing and management of e-readers told from a school librarian's perspective. The author strikes a balance between humor and pragmatism, offering concrete suggestions, research and strategies. 

Women and girls constitute the majority of the 775 million illiterates in the world. The main goal of the project is the empowerment of women and/or girls through education via innovative mobile technology-based learning and information programs.