Group items tagged

Sexuality, political leanings and even intelligence can be gleaned from the things you choose to "like" on Facebook, a study suggests. Researchers at Cambridge University used algorithms to predict religion, politics, race and sexual orientation. The research, published in the journal PNAS, forms surprisingly accurate personal portraits, researchers said.

This publication is an overview of research on student use of social networking tools by the National School Boards Association in July 2007. While the recommendations to school districts about using social networking were generally positive and generic, two sets of statistics were surprising. The first dealt with the almost universal use of social networking tools by teenage students. 96% of students with internet access have used some form of social networking tool. 21% said they post comments on discussion boards every day. The second set of statistics tried to allay the concerns about student safety while using social networking tools. Only 0.08% of students have reported committing the cardinal sin on online behavior: meeting someone they met online without their parents permission.

This presentation does nothing more employ multi-media to list 18 names of individuals who are associated with the field of education in various manners.It is short and to the point. What is special, however, is that these 18 names are active members of blogs, wikis and a host of connections. Out of the 18 , I Googled 3 and was quickly transported to several presentations, links and information regarding Google Wave and the importance of using "Backchannels" in the classroom. When I was an undergraduate, I had a professor whose name was Robert Peck. He often commented that "like minds ought to form networks so as to be able communicate easily and often…but how do we make this happen?" Were he alive to see the connectedness of the Ed Tech community he would smile.

Hey Dennis- I appreciate your posts. I'm an old basketball coach and, as such, not so cerebral, but I do try. I read the link with the research evaluating exemplary teachers vs their peers. Interesting work. When reading education research, it is the publishing dates I generally find discouraging. In this case, It is ten years later, have we really moved the ball on any of this? (That's a football coach reference, but, whatever). How many generations of students will pass before we begin to ensure they receive the education that might provide them advantage? Or will America be the lagging country-still presuming standardized tests are evidence of.....heck, anything. ts

This site can be used to help students who are looking to attend a 4 year College find the right school. You will find that it has many search features and cool resources to help prospective college students refine their choice(s) of schools. These days researching schools is an educational experience.

Stephen, this looks like a wonderful resource for a student!

For data centers, storage is a constant concern. In 2012, 28 percent of data center managers acknowledged rapid storage growth as having a significant impact on their data operations. According to most data centers, as of 2012, they were experiencing data storage growth at a rate of 10 to 24 percent on an annual basis.

You have to check out this YouTube video of a 7th grade student giving a tour of her personal learning environment. The project was conducted as part of dissertation research implementing the use of networked learning and construction of personal learning environments in a 7th grade life science class.

I am quite humbled by this girl. Wow!

That was a great example of how good students can become at using new tools to construct and organize learning. I am impressed with both the student and the teacher. The teacher must be very dedicated and organized. The student claims that the class is basically paperless. I have never heard of the note taking program she referenced, and I think that can be helpful for me in this masters program! I also have never seen the digital poster application she used. The best part of this video is that it is proof that educational technology is being used well is some classrooms.

I somewhat facetiously posted in my class introduction that I would not be "tweetered". I felt it only fair that I should begin my study on a topic for which I have distrust. This article did present an interesting and creative use of Twitter. The applicationn provided the means to accurately record data by having subjects record actions in real time (by tweeting). This gives the observer more accurate information, as there is no need for the subject to recall and reconstruct occurrences from memory. This research was directed toward a broader end of understanding the role of informal learning, the authors called these "learnscapes" as opposed to classroom learning. The lingering impression for me is the creativity in which technology is being applied in support of the redefinition and understanding of learning. It's why I believe this is actually one of the most interesting times to be an educator.

Timothy, glad to see you start your study with Twitter :) I agree with you- this is an interesting application of Twitter for educational purposes. I can also see some possible spin offs that could be used in my institutional setting. We have students who are off campus all over the world during their last term of chiropractic school. Perhaps they could Twitter about what patient conditions they treat each day and post links to where they found information supporting evidence-based practice for those conditions.

This article was useful to me because I have recently started to use Twitter in my own classroom as a way to get information out to other teachers as well as a tool for me to find other resources. The questions that this article presented for me are how many teachers out there use Twitter? I am constantly trying to find data to support my use, just in case the principal gets a nasty email or phone call about it. I have had nothing but positive thoughts from parents on the use of Twitter, but that could change is the wrong person found out. I have actually became a little more at ease since reading this article. I now have a good resource to finding other links on Twitter and this is something that I can show my principal to support the use of Twitter.

Keefe, This article was useful because it demystified the Personal Learning Network (PLN) usefulness for educational purposes. Some of the questions that the article prompted for me was how to utilize Twitter. I especially enjoyed reading about how Twitter was used for professional research networking. I feel that short tweets can lead to ground breaking theories that have not been presented on the internet. I also noted that there were 38 blog posts for this article. Thanks for sharing your insights. Brenda Janot

I just learned two valuable lessons…one write your work outside of the textboxes and save it because your computer may freeze and you'll lose your work…how many times have I told my online students this, yet I did the same mistake?! Secondly, develop a system of finding the same resource over again. Perhaps save it in your favorites or copy and paste the link somewhere… I spent 15 minutes trying to refind my resource. Grrr. Back to the purpose of this post...This video link provided a summary of how teachers can use a PLN such as Twitter to "stream" information for use in their classrooms. You can take what you like or let the information float by knowing that more information always comes down the stream. It provides a simple visual example of using PLN. Much of the information contained in the video has already been stated throughout our Diigo group, but I chose it because I liked how it summarized PLNs. I actually used my newly established Twitter account to find this resource. I typed "Personal Learning Networks" into the search field , scanned through the posts that were in English, found one with "teachers" in the title, which is my interest and reviewed the resource posted. I liked the resource and felt I should share it with my Boise peers. From this point, I can read further into the topic by clicking on related links or I can explore the person's profile that provided the link to get to know the source. However, I chose to take the information and move on in the interest of time. Perfect!

I love this video! I posted an article about Twitter before I watched this video, now I have even more information I can bring back to my principal to support the use of Twitter. Thanks for posting this!

I like the link. I like how descriptive it is, and it gives an interesting introduction. In my last class, (522) I did a web cast presentation on how to use twitter effectively for teaching purposes. This video validates a lot of my research on the use of twitter in education. There are so many cool social media outlets, I wonder what the next "biggest thing" will be? The presenter's English accent threw me at first, but then I envied his brogue.

I found this short video describing the difference between a PLE and a VLE. I thought it was appropriate for our discussion of PLE's, and PLN's. VLE is a virtual learning environment that allows people to share idea's and content virtually. The author's make a reference to using VLE's in a University environment, which seems to fit in perfectly with this module's discussions. They give wonderful examples of resources for research to social networking. I wonder if we are going to discuss VLE's this semester?

This video can be helpful as you build your mindmap this week.

This article on PLC's is a good one. It goes over the definition of a PLC and explains why they are now so commonplace in education. I highlighted the key point, "suggesting that when teachers had opportunities for collaborative inquiry and the learning related to it, they were able to develop and share a body of wisdom gleaned from their experience." Because I think it sums up all the reasons why PLC's are now being utilized so often in education. Research has proven that when PLC's are utilized effectively in schools, student learning improves greatly.

Open Course through Athabasca University

Article from National Middle School Association's Middle School Journal about misunderstandings and misrepresentations of PLCs

I guess I wasn't expecting to see all of the highlights and sticky notes listed out here. I hope I did this correctly!

Interesting display that I didn't expect! Thanks for exploring this tool with us, Libby :)