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1. Last night President Obama continued his misleading claims about Warren Buffett's tax rate.  David Leonhardt recalls that I rebutted those claims several years ago.  David usefully asks for a response to my rebuttal from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning research group in Washington.

The faculty at my college have been discussing this current article that discusses how "at least 45 percent of undergraduates demonstrated no improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills in the first two years of college, and 36 percent showed no progress in four years." To read Part 2 of the article copy and paste this link into the URL: http://chronicle.com/article/A-Perfect-Storm-in/126969/

I've not used social bookmarking until this week, so I first checked to see what platforms are available. And now....[drumroll]....my first social bookmark!

A selection of Facebook Pages providing resources and dialogue focused on education and instructional technologies.

Thanks Rosa, this may just change my mind.

A wonderful place for up-to-date education news. I send my students here several times a semester for articles to discuss in class.

Pinning the work of others to Pinterest boards may violate copyright. Pinner, not Pinterest, is liable.

great site for any accounting (or finance) terms my students don't understand

This is my recommendation on the use of blog.

Vesely, P., Bloom, L., & Sherlock, J. (2007). Key elements of building online community: Comparing faculty and student perceptions. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 3(3), 234-246. Vesely, Bloom, and Sherlock (2007) document that essential to the learning process is the student/student and student/teacher interaction, and building this community of learners is more challenging in online. Students in blended courses felt interaction may be better than in traditional courses. Students who feel silenced in onsite class discussions are more apt to contribute online. Seeking help can be a determining factor in successful learning. In the online communities, help is available virtually around the clock from the instructors and fellow classmates. Furthermore, through their experiences in the blended course, students would better understand the significance of managing their time, cultivating their study environment, regulating their effort, seeking appropriate support, and learning from classmates. In my experience, students reported that their online interaction with classmates had greatly assisted in their comprehension of course materials. Central to how they felt about blended learning was the quality and quantity of student and faculty interaction. In blended courses, students are often required to engage actively by reading and responding to discussion forum postings that become a permanent record of their participation and learning, rather than passively attending classes. Perceptions of interaction from faculty are also positive for blended courses. Faculty renovate their teaching methods by placing onsite lectures online and adding supplementary activities to aid student learning. Blended teaching and learning transforms education from "a command and control structure to a connect and collaborate environment" (Moskal, Dziuban, Upchurch, Hartman, & Truman, 2006) which is more student-centered than faculty-controlled. For faculty, the quality

This paper addresses the faculty's awareness of the benefits of Web 2.0 to supplement in-class learning and assess faculty's decisions to adopt these tools using the decomposed theory of planned behavior. In my experience, all assignments in our courses are taught and completed in computer labs, we are supposed to attend several hours or more of professional development, teaching assistants and faculty are encouraged to pursue a certificate in teaching with technology, and in addition, more experienced teaching assistants routinely share their knowledge and experience in working with different types of technology with their colleagues who are just starting. The attitude of faculty and their perceived behavioral control are the main concern to their intention to use the technology tools.

In my search for good audio tools, I found UJAM, a free tool for recording your voice, creating a song, converting your voice to an instrument...you name it. You can see a beta walk through on YouTube, but basically, you sign up, record into your computer's microphone, and make a few manipulations--presto, a song. You can edit chords, the song melody, add instruments, etc. Or you can turn your voice into an instrument! This might be a good tool for musicians, music teachers, and certainly for budding rock stars! Maybe it would be good for unique exercise in a poetry class...the spoken word as song.

Here is a sample of the Prezi that I developed for students in my African American Studies 101 course. I hope that you find it intersting.

As I was developing this Prezi, I found it most useful. To this end, I'm going to clean it up and show it to the committee at my institution that is responsible for new student orientation. Students need to know about academic integrity before the mistake is made.

This is a free downloadable program that allows you to create an animated video. This is bookmarked in my account

If I made a Diigo site for my students, I would include this bookmark.

This is the article I found to use in my Discussion forum assignment for Mod 2. I will be discussing the uses of Facebook in class.

I have received many questions about my synchronous webcam discussions. This is the magic tool I use. :) BB IM. Enjoy!

Given the harsh criticisms that social networks commonly face when it comes to their use by teenagers, I thought it would be useful to post this newspaper piece that presents the opposite argument: Social media might be usually considered to be just places of the lurking danger of real-life social isolation (among more gruesome dangers in this context), but they could also be seen as places where a teenager can be inventive, discover aptitudes and of course develop his/her social skills. Also, it discusses research which shows that teenagers are more often than not well aware of the dangers that lie behind the (ab)use of social media.

Hmmm, should I share this with my teenage son?

Good article, though I am still sceptical!

I'd chosen accessibility tools as my elective for the scrapbook, so I thought I'd share this resource which includes numerous links that contain useful information, as well as software that can be used to ensure that your course is as accessible as possible. It also includes some relevant legal information that could also come in handy! Hope you'll find it handy..