TuftsAT

The interface between Web 2.0 and existing campus systems, including the SIS, the ERP, the LMS, and the ePortfolio assessment system, and others, is still, in large part, unexplored country.

PlugJam is a solution for schools, colleges, and universities looking to bridge the gap between existing campus-based tools and Web 2.0 services, allowing students to use their favorite social networking environment or Web Service to access their campus-based resources

Tom is a lecturer at Strummer University in French Language. He wants his students to get used to engaging in online audio/video discussions, capturing mobile input. He has distance as well as campus based students so wants something asynchronous. Seesmic seems to be ideal. But rather than tell his students to sign up there and swap ids, he just wants them to be able to use it as a suite of tools. If they decide to go there, it will be already configured for them. So he speaks to his IT services dept. who tell him that Seesmic is one of the 2138 applications that are listed in the Uniglu directory. This means they are trusted and are capable of accepting university data. They pass the secure data to the Seesmic API which automatically creates accounts for all the students, using their OpenID and preferred user names. It adds in all the students in the cohort as Followers and Following.Similarly, in the course wiki, Tom is using Wetpaint. This also adds in all the students, and also sets up Tom and the two course assistants as moderators. The access to the wiki is set to registered only (ie the course cohort only, not public) which is the default option when it is available.

Facebook has the potential to be an excellent marketing tool for any higher education institution. Because of its simplistic and widget design you do not need to be a graphic designer to create an impressive presence on Facebook as it doesn’t really allow much wiggle room in this respect. The biggest warning is to not spend too much time attempting to overdo it. It is incredibly easy to get lost in tinkering with add on applications and searching the vast network looking for new friends. I personally feel the best way to use Facebook is as another resource to direct individuals to better branded and targeted information on your main site.

benefit of this technology in terms of student motivation and engagement

making class more interesting and aiding in exam preparation

students who used an SRS retained significantly more of their knowledge from the midterm than did the control group

The act of stopping several times a day to observe what you’re feeling or thinking can become, after weeks and weeks, a sort of philosophical act