Group items tagged

"Florida's Polytechnic University is entirely digital and has no print books at all. This enormous facility promises to make 'many more books available for the students' in digital form."

"Below is a curated bibliography, mirrored from the University of Minnesota Digital Video Collections Guide, consisting of quality licensed and open digital video collections that has been inspired largely with support from Arizona State University (deg farrely) and some resources culled from various institutions in the LibGuides Community.  This resource is being shared on ALA Connect as an Online Doc with the hope that a community of media interested professionals will contribute further links/descriptions of quality licensed or open digital video collections, and repurposed as they see fit to meet the needs of their constituents.  Attribution is greatly appreciated, but please repurpose regardless."

"MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses.  Although there has been access to free online courses on the Internet for years, the quality and quantity of courses has changed. Access to free courses has allowed students to obtain a level of education that many only could dream of in the past.  This has changed the face of education."

Most suitable for Australia as courses are provided by Australian universities

Most colleges and universities have a responsible use policy that outlines rules and expectations. In this post there are several tips for students who want to use technology wisely and avoid getting in trouble with college or legal authorities.Also a link to explore these technology must-haves for college students.

From The University of Melbourne. "Beginning Research: This guide will help you through the beginning stages of researching, what every the purpose for the research."

Author looks at the universal ideas/themes that lie behind different types of successful makerspaces.

Google Slides have made the process of creating an eBook so much easier than doing it using Google Docs. Google Slides allows you to manipulate and edit images in ways that you cannot in Google Docs. With Slides, you can add backgrounds, borders, and layer text boxes, graphics, and shapes. If you have ever been frustrated with trying to get an image in the exact spot you want in Google Docs, you may want to try it in Google Slides. Since you can easily convert your slides to PDF, the most universally accepted file format, your eBook can be read on practically any device.

"ITSL, in collaboration with the Centre of Program Evaluation at the University of Melbourne are conducting a three-year process and impact evaluation of the implementation of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. The purpose of the Evaluation is to assess the usefulness, effectiveness and impact of the Standards on improving teacher quality. Over 6,002 respondents including teachers, school leaders, pre-service teachers and teacher educators participated in the 2013 National Survey. Initial analysis from the survey highlights the key findings below."

The University Libraries supports learners who are participating in MOOCs (massive open online courses). This guide will help you to locate resources related to MOOCS and get started on your coursework and research.

Reading Australia has been developed by the Copyright Agency and aims to make significant Australian literary works more readily available for teaching in schools and universities. These works are supplemented with online teacher resources and essays by popular authors about the enduring relevance of the works. There is a list of titles (download as a PDF). These titles have been selected by the Australian Society of Authors' (ASA) Council. They were asked to select works they thought students and others should encounter, to give a view of Australia's rich cultural identity: works that would tell Australia's history and also how we are currently developing as a nation. The ASA Council are adamant that this list should be merely the beginning, and it should be built upon with other works that have already been published, as well as the great new works that continue to be published in Australia. There is a wide range of teacher resources available (PDF) for Primary and Secondary school teachers and all of these teacher resources include classroom activities, assessments and links to the Australian Curriculum. In addition, many of the Secondary resources include an introductory essay on the text written by high profile writers. The Primary level resources have been commissioned by the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia and the Australian Literacy Educators' Association, and the resources for Secondary level have been jointly commissioned by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English and the English Teachers Association NSW."

"Today our experienced professionals and new library workers must find their passion around people to build an educated and involved citizenry and ensure digital and economic opportunity for all. Library professionals are the essential element of strong schools, colleges, universities, and public communities."

Article written by James W. P. Campbell. He has travelled the world together with Will Pryce the architectural photographer, visiting and photographing 85 of the world's greatest libraries in 21 countries. He now has written a book The Library: A World History (Chicago University Press), which he claims is the most complete account of library buildings to date.

5 minute video, published on 4 Apr 2014, that has principals talking about the benefits of the school (teacher) librarian. Principals Know: School Librarians are the Heart of the School was crowdsourced by Dr. Judi Moreillon and Dr. Teresa Starrett using funds provided by the Texas Library Association, Demco, and the Dean's Research Funds (College of Professional Education, Texas Woman's University).

"What really works in schools and classrooms? How much difference can homework and class size make to a child's ability? Sarah Montague interviews John Hattie, Professor of Education at the University of Melbourne and Chair of the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership. Over 20 years, he carried out one of the biggest pieces of education research, compiling studies from previous decades and comparing the effect they have on attainment and ability. His work is ongoing, but the results show a league table of effectiveness. It reinforces things you might expect, such as the importance of teachers, but also offers some surprises that might have parents and teachers questioning their priorities."

"A new project is printing Braille picture books for visually impaired children. Each page turns the pictures from the original book into raised 3D shapes alongside traditional Braille text. "The advantage of 3D-printing is really about making one-of-a-kind objects,' says Tom Yeh, who heads up the Tactile Picture Books Project at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Later this year, Yeh's group will work with the National Braille Press in Boston to offer children a copy of Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin that has a page customised with the child's name in Braille."

"Published on 29 Nov 2014. Part one of a Library Q&A - all about becoming a librarian and MLIS degrees. The list of questions were: 00:45 - What skills do you need to be a librarian? 02:40 - What lead me to become a librarian? 03:57 - Do I have a degree, and are MLIS degrees needed in other countries? 04:34 - What kind of coursework did I do for my degree? 06:05 - Did I do a thesis? 06:36 - Did I go to Dal, and if yes, what did I think of it? Also: What advice would I give to new/aspiring MLIS students? 09:15 - Considering an MLIS degree, but concerned about not being able to find a job afterward - what are my thoughts on this? 10:49 - Do librarians make a lot of money? 12:36 - How should someone go about getting a library job while at university? Do they hire non-MLIS students?"

From the Lu Rees Archives of Australian Children's Literature. University of Canberra

An interesting discussion about the print phenomenon. Different sources from textbook publishers, bookstore owners and college student surveys all say that young people still strongly prefer print for pleasure and learning. This is a bias that surprises reading experts when the same group spend so much of the rest of their time on-line. "A University of Washington pilot study of digital textbooks found that a quarter of students still bought print versions of e-textbooks that they were given for free."

The University of Melbourne page that has links to advice on study and research skills. Includes studying for exams.