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The University of Luxembourg just started the process of evaluating/rating the classes and programs that are offered throughout the year. The students are the main actors in this process as their input is requested. The link and article that I propose, relates to a topic related to evaluating the quality of education, focusing on the teachers. The usefulness and validity of self-selected online student ratings of faculty is taken into consideration, as these ratings appear to be increasing in importance, particularly as students utilize them as guides in their choice of instructors. Validity is investigated by analyzing the pattern of relationships of online ratings for 399 randomly selected faculty. Analysis suggests that online ratings in their current form may be useful, even though possible abuses could limit validity in specific instances. The authors of the research believe that this study is timely and important, as Ratemyprofessor.com ratings are growing in usage and popularity with students, their parents, academics and authorities that have the duty of evaluating further the educational programs that are offered throughout universities and colleges. Such ratings affect student decisions about which professors to take and in addition, students are developing expectations of instructors based on peer comments in online ratings websites. If the websites do not provide valid information, then the ratings would not provide accurate information and thus students would probably respond to correct the ratings. On the other hand, to the extent that online ratings can be demonstrated as valid measures of instructors' abilities to inspire learning, online ratings have potential value. Increased transparency of the ratings should have virtuous effects for students to select professors who conform to their learning styles. And instructors should improve their teaching methods in order to improve their ratings.

Simina, this is very interesting. Thanks for sharing it with us. I agree with the article and with you. Evaluating the professors/teachers/instructors and the classes is a great tool to improve the system. It is like when us, the students ask for feedback as an essential step towards our development. Besides that, if the students have access to these evaluations it can be of great value for both for the student and for the professor or teacher. The student can base his/her choices on something and the professor can count only on students to participate in his/her class who are actually interested on class. Like this we avoid these classes we thought would be very interesting but it turns out are not corresponding at all to the description, and the professors/teachers don't need to deal with uninterested students, which sometimes can spoil the class.

In this study, we investigated the effect of using the social network site Facebook for discussions in an online course. Data were collected from concurrent offerings of an introductory educational psychology course, one using Facebook discussion boards and the other Moodle forums. We measured student perceptions of social presence and the frequency and length of their discussion interactions. Evaluation of this data indicated that there were no differences in our measures. We discuss why the potential benefits of Facebook for online teaching may not have emerged in this study and provide suggestions for further research in this area.

I agree with Lucas. It is still kind of difficult to deal with it, but it will become natural. However it does not sound odd to me. Not at all. It is simply a question of time. The same happened with the Email taking over the traditional "sending letters ritual". It is the natural course of technology! :) As far as I am concerned it can work out pretty well. We have the example of moodle within our master and I also have already the experience with facebook for school discussions (within my german course). One of my friends, who is TOTALLY addicted to facebook, was telling us the other day that she spends so much time on facebook that she gets now the feeling that she is "outdated" when it comes to news. And we told her to join/add one newspaper (or so), which has a facebook page. Like this she would get the information anyway. It is a good point also valid for education. Why not to "combine business with pleasure"? It is not only usefull, but it can also be a motivator for the students.

one year later... :) it is interesting to see how facebook and its use actually changed during this year. For our Media class with Charles Max we made a little research on whether the students from the Master program use the Socializing Forum of the Moodle platform or not and why. While one year ago the Moodle platform was the main space where students shared and discussed ideas about academic topics and issues, this year it turned out that the students prefer to communicate and discuss things through facebook rather than on Moodle. Facebook seems to become an easy and handy way to communicate and exchange ideas not only on a personal level but also for academic reasons.

I would like to share with you this new project that gives light a new dimension to education using the social media as tool to increase the interaction between teacher and students. The Flat Classroom Project is an innovative approach where educators have built social-networking sites specifically for use in class and home assignments. This project allows communication for students in the classroom, but for them to interact with students in far away classrooms all around the world can reach and learn from each other. A recent survey (http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults.aspx) from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 73 percent of online teens use social-networking sites. Updating their Facebook or MySpace page has become a regular activity for teens as is using these services to catch up on what their peers are doing. Using similar tools will encourage students to interact with each other, using many of the same techniques they do when away from school but focused on their educational goals. Hope for someone will be useful

Its is very interesting to see that new technologies are more and more taking part of the class as being a tool like any other ones. It is very important to let them get in the class and not leave them out as new media and new technologies are used on a everyday basis by most of the students. One of the most important point of this article to make sure that the use of tools should be customized depending on the students. It is also in my opinion that the more customized the process of learning is, the better will be the learning. Customizing a class lead to a better motivation for the students and so lead to a better learning and more important remembering of what is done during the class. Moreover, I agree with the authors when saying that new technologies should be used and learned from the very beginning of school. As I said, new technologies should not be let outside of the school as it takes a great part of our lifes nowadays. And the earliest it is learnt, the better the students will know how to use them to make them as most efficient in their lifes (private ones, during their studies, careers...) as possible. It is said in the article that this project is used in different countries. However, besides Spain, the rest of them are english speaking countries. How could this project be developed in order to touch more and more countries? Or could it be used during english classes in other countries than the one mentionned?

The authors of this book provide concrete examples of activities for using constructivism and technology to allow students to construct knowledge, to think and to learn. Constructivist learning emphasizes the five different attributes of meaningful learning which are (i) intentional learning, (ii) active learning, (iii) constructive learning, (iv) cooperative learning, and (v) authentic learning. Real learning requires combining the different elements of meaningful learning. The authors describe six ways to use technology and constructivist learning to allow students to construct understanding and learn. The authors describe the types of technology in very basic terms and the specific hardware and software that are required for the classroom in order to partake in the activities described in the book. For each technology, the authors describe activities and projects that can be used to facilitate learning. They also describe the learning process, the role of the student, the role of the teacher, and ways to assess the learning process. The goal of this book is to advocate educational reform and change through constructivist methodologies by demonstrating specific examples of how the tools of technology can be employed to empower students to construct knowledge and meaning. What I found interesting (and possibly useful for us) is that at the end of each chapter, the authors pose "things to think about" and list numerous questions for further discussion.

This article retraces the use of new media and new technologies in a class of Oral History. It shows that by using those new tools, it enhanced learning through a more interactive, participative and collaborative way. During the Oral History Class, the students were engaged in a collaborative project aimed at giving the "opportunity to play an action-research and community service role". The use of new media and technologies were used in class (using computers) as well as outside the classroom. For this project a "Class folder" was created where students and teacher could put their work as well as knowing about the assignment or the advancement of the project. This "Class folder" developed a conceptualization of "centralization" of the work: the access was free, any time and it was for the student a good way to share their ideas, comments and work. It also enhanced the "decentralization of knowledge": the students were more autonomous and the teacher became a "facilitator rather than a singular authority in the classroom".

More and more universities around the world provide online, e-learning programs that enable the long distance education to interested individuals. The website that I propose is one of my favorite options in terms of creative education related to arts, performing, liberal, media and communication arts. The SCAD eLearning environment encompasses an online global community, where students learn from SCAD faculty and one another, participating in critiques, meetings and collaborative projects. Students complete undergraduate and graduate degree requirements completely online or in combination with on-site courses. SCAD eLearning provides comprehensive university services including career coaching, research workshops, counseling services, SCAD libraries, and resources such as the Virtual Lecture Hall, SCAD.tv, and the Visual Resources Center. Recipient of numerous awards, SCAD eLearning has been recognized for its outstanding and comprehensive online learning curriculum. Vigorous, well-designed coursework, combined with exceptional instruction, ensures a world-class online education. Enjoy!

Singing Bob Marley or The Ramones... It does not matter! Karaoke can help students developing their capacities. :) This article brings up a very interesting issue: using karaoke as a learning tool for Special Education Students and English Language Learners. A short quotation to increase your curiosity about the article: "SSHH! YOU CAN'T SING IN THE LIBRARY I first had the idea of introducing karaoke into my middle school library program after going to a local club on karaoke Night. People got up and seemed to become someone else-more confident-regardless of their ability to sing. I got up my courage to try it and the same thing happened to me. I chose Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," and not only did I survive, I felt on top of the world!" It is very interesting, however not new to us (us, the ones who couldn't participate in the symposium in Munich...) because Gudrun had a similar idea for our session... :)

This article shows how the language learning process is integrated with the technology. Different social media tools create different interactive possibilities to improve the language skills of the students. This article emphasises the use of voicethread as a tool of Web 2.0 that combine different methods in itself that allows students to use their creativity and skills. I have already use voice thread the last year during the class of Telecolloboration. It´s very interesting for the ones that didn´t take this class and also for others that want to integrate different social media tools into education.

"As part of its Transforming Undergraduate Education Program, the University of Texas SYSTEM has initiated a statewide virtual learning community of students, faculty, researchers and administrators, that offers a creative approach to undergraduate instruction through the innovative use of a 21st century low-cost online virtual world technology."

I think this a very interesting approach to get a clearer picture how convivial Facebook really is - and also a good example of a small study on a test group, methodologically speaking. Even though this is not representative, I can confirm, that these numbers do in fact mirror my own networking habits with my 'friends'… but I think you also have to pay further attention to other factors like context of the FB user - as a college student is bound to communicate more than a 50 year old housewife for example… or a couple which gets engaged or the birth of a baby might create a false result, if you do not analyse it as a longitudinal study… never mind the size of the network. So yeay fir a test study, but for the real study they need to clarify some details and pay further attention to some critical variables!