Here's the new plan: Colleges require students to pay a course-materials fee, which would be used to buy e-books for all of them (whatever text the professor recommends, just as in the old model).
Why electronic copies? Well, they're far cheaper to produce than printed texts, making a bulk purchase more feasible
An Indiana company called Courseload hopes to make the model more widespread, by serving as a broker for colleges willing to impose the requirement on students. And it is not alone.
The real champions of the change are the college officials signing the deals.
"Our game plan is to bring the cost of textbooks down by 75 to 80 percent."
In its standard model, Flat World offers free access to its textbooks while students are online. If students want to download a copy to their own computers, they must pay $24.95 for a PDF (a print edition costs about $30)
My friend Rae helped me with this version! Download the QT version here: http://kevinhoneycutt.orgVisit my sites for more stuff!http://artsnacks.orghttp://podstock.ning.com/http://mysafesurf.org
Cloud computing. Web 2.0. Social networking. Stories are being told in new mediums. This blog examines YA stories in their original, print versions and how they can be re-told in new ways using collaborative online tools.
His take on the education system, for example, is that it is a badly designed game: students compete for good grades, but lose motivation when they fail. A good game, by contrast, never makes you feel like you've failed: you just progress more slowly. Instead of giving bad students an F, why not start all pupils with zero points and have them strive for the high score?
How can this idea be applied to information skills and school libraries?
a consultant on cyber-crimefighting speaks with undisguised joy about how much information the police could glean from Facebook, in order to infiltrate communities where criminals might lurk. Asked about privacy concerns, she replies: "Yeah – we'll have to keep an eye on that."
Until recently, the debate over "digital distraction" has been one of vested interests: authors nostalgic for the days of quiet book-reading have bemoaned it, while technology zealots have dismissed it. But the fusion of the virtual world with the real one exposes both sides of this argument as insufficient, and suggests a simpler answer: the internet is distracting if it stops you from doing what you really want to be doing; if it doesn't, it isn't.
Fascinating article about the next generation of the ubiquitous web and the implications. Good definition of "gamification." This is excellent background information for strategic planning and discussing the potential implications on education.
Fascinating article about the next generation of the ubiquitous web and the implications. Good definition of "gamification." This is excellent background information for strategic planning and discussing the potential implications on education.
Love it or hate it, no one can ignore Microsoft Office. One way or the other it manages to pop up in our lives. Even if a lot of people have found cooler alternatives in the cloud like Google Docs, a lot of businesses and most Government Offices continue to use Microsoft Office to create and edit documents.So it's only appropriate to use the lemons to make lemonade. Even if we can't ditch Microsoft Office for good, we can leverage the cloud to collaborate on them. Agilewords is one such app that helps users to edit and review documents in the cloud.From WebAppStorm
The world’s geekiest search engine (that’s a ‘Computational Knowledge Engine’ to you), Wolfram Alpha has launched a new feature that allows you to manipulate data interactively.
This allows you to: interact with your results using sliders and controls; rotate and zoom 3D graphics and visualizations, and manipulate results directly in your browser.
“Sometimes being able to change parameters dynamically just enriches what is already rather complete output. But often, it’s what really makes the output meaningful.”
Web hosting is one of the most different industries and certain hosting companies specialize in a very particular niche. There are some of the best web hosting companies in the world that are cheap and there are some companies that are expensive. There are many ways to market your web hosting company. Here are some ways that you can get profits with your web hosting companies that you will see results from.
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
just released its standards-aligned Here in Chicago, AASL's Best Websites for Teaching & Learning Committee 2013 list. Sites, apps, and tools are selected because they engage users through innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. Honored websites, tools, and resources will provide exceptional value to inquiry-based teaching and learning.
http://www.ala.org/aasl/standards-guidelines/best-websites/2013#media
In the category of Media Sharing,among the selections in AASL's Best Websites for Teaching and Learning are:
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/
Create connections, encourage collaboration, ignite discussions, or simply share mutual interests through Pinterest. Uploaded or "pin" images and videos from websites, blogs, or your own computer, smartphone, or tablet to create boards. These boards can be private or public, and others can be invited to pin on any of your boards. Any "pin" can be "repinned", and all pins will link back to their source. Grades 6-12.
smore https://www.smore.com/
Flyers and newsletters become a snap with Smore! Design and create professional online flyers by choosing from an array of templates, styles, and colors to compliment your individual style and audience. With Smore you can embed links, audio, video, pictures, and text into your flyers and newsletters and then publish instantly to get your message and information out quickly. Grades 6-12.
Here is a Pinterest board of Library Smores: http://pinterest.com/cshinn4/library-smores/