Group items tagged

Knowing where to turn for facts, handy web apps and other types of resources can make student life a lot easier. Read on for a list of 50 of the most useful and dependable online resources for college and university students.

A recent report from the University of Wisconsin-Madison E-Business Institute, "Insights Regarding Undergraduate Preference for Lecture Capture", has revealed just how important class capture is in the minds of today's college students: According to the survey, an impressive 82 percent of respondents (7,500 UW undergraduate and graduate students) prefer courses with an online lecture option. Sixty percent are even willing to pay for lecture capture services, preferably on a course-by-course basis.

One qualitative study, which surely won't be welcomed by manufacturers of basic word processing software, found that students who create and edit documents using Web-based collaboration tools include more complex visual media in their assignments - and come away with a better understanding in the process. Another ongoing experiment finds, with statistical significance, that instructors can be more effective in grading students' work if they record their comments directly into documents as audio.

Assessment and accreditation portfolios tend to include quantitative measures of student performance gauged against a set of learning outcomes that have been identified by an instructor, program, department or institution. By using reports that aggregate and analyze data surrounding student learning in relation to a predefined set of educational outcomes, these types of portfolios provide a rich source of information about the actual results of the teaching and learning process and can therefore help institutions align their institutional practice with their stated institutional mission or goals.

Dartmouth faculty in diverse departments including Government, Art History, Arabic, Writing, Native American Studies and Women Studies were excited to assign video projects and wanted to give students a more active and engaged learning experience. However, the faculty did not have a clear understanding of the processes involved to support such a project or how to integrate this type of assignment into the curriculum. To insure success, we needed to develop a more ambitious, comprehensive and seamless support services between curricular computing, the library's media center, and the peer-tutoring center. This session will illustrate how we've "de-silotized" the pedagogical and technical support and share students' feedback about their experiences.

The educational possibilities through Second Life allow teachers and employers to reach out to students beyond their traditional classrooms and school districts, expose young children to global issues and new friends around the world, design their own avatars and environments for highly customized training sessions and interactive discussions, practice real-world skills and manage real-life situations in a safe environment, and most of all keep students engaged in a technologically-driven society.

The non-routine problems offer the opportunity to create competitive advantage, and solving those problems requires creative thought and tenacity.

Currently I avoid, as much as I can, LMSs. Instead I kluge together a loose collection of free web applications, (Eduspaces Community blog, PBwiki, Pageflakes, Audacity, a password-protected mark site, and whatever free file-hosting service my current students recommend.) It's a bit more work than using a LMS but I believe this approach, the kluging together of a selection of free web services, is a richer and more productive teaching practice.

We love learning. We hate school. What's worse is that many of us hate school because we love learning.

I handle wikivandalism under our school vandalism policy. In this case, I didn't know how to lock pages and a student edited the assignment. By the next period, they were in the principles office dealt with on vandalism charges in the way we handle that -- like writing on the bathroom walls level of vandalism. So, expect wiki vandalism to happen early but catch it early.

Students take their ePortfolios to new levels, while the pundits look on and try to fathom what's next, and the market responds with Web 2.0 goodies.

A clip from Channel 11 in Colorado Springs regarding the use of video podcasting (vodcasting) at Woodland Park High School. Lectures are recorded, students do homework in class.

1. Student Learning and Creativity 2. Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments 3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning 4. Digital Citizenship and Responsibility 5. Professional Growth and Leadership

Just because 50-minute classroom sessions are the norm on a college schedule does not make that the ideal duration for students outside the lecture hall.

The tool I used in class. $45 (single license) or $125 (5 licenses).

The software I have been using for the last 4 years to stimulate classroom engagement. It's a timer and a student or team random picker. Very easy and useful.

One of the strategic initiatives approved last fall by the Strategic Planning Council, the Academy has goals that include enhancing professional development for faculty, assisting in the formation of graduate students as scholar-teachers and promoting the scholarship of teaching and learning through new areas of research.

The University of Delaware's 2009 Winter Faculty Institute--"The Ecosystem of Learning at the University of Delaware"--will be held Tuesday, Jan. 6, in the Rodney Room of the Perkins Student Center.

Teaching and learning in the classroom using the Drupal CMS * Use Drupal in the classroom to enhance teaching and engage students with a range of learning activities * Create blogs, online discussions, groups, and a community website using Drupal. * Clear step-by-step instructions throughout the book * No need for code! A teacher-friendly, comprehensive guide

Tips, terminology and points to consider are provided so you can make an informed choice on how to meet your data and voice communication needs.

Lester Ray, a development executive with Apple, hosted the afternoon session of UD's Summer Faculty Institute, during which he addressed the frequent divide between technologically savvy college students and traditional lecture hall teaching practices.