A VIU: Learning Community

I have found this site very helpful. It provides many clear instructions for creating the most useful activities in Moodle.

Posted in June of 2014, but very useful. Some tricks and ideas that are eminently usable (e.g., the notion of using hangouts as an invitation to office hours)

A simple tool for saving web pages to read later on your iPhone, iPad, Android, computer, or Kindle. The great part is it copies just the article without advertising and side menus, so no distractions. It also keeps a link to the original website for a quick and easy return.

In this article, Justin Reich, a Research Fellow and Lecturer in the Technology, Innovation, and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, argues that LMS are "homogenized, transient and disempowering" and that they serve "the needs of institutions, not individual students." The author describes teaching a course in a large-scale environment where "the specific goal is for students to learn to build networks of learning resources- people, readings, websites and communities- that can help them continue learning in a domain long after a course ends." His course, built on Connectivist principles, asks students to move beyond the course LMS and "curate links and connections and share their evolving ideas." Students used websites, blogs, Twitter and other Web spaces to share and store their ideas. The author discusses several advantages of moving beyond the LMS. Justin, R. (2015, February 13). Techniques for Unleashing Student Work from Learning Management Systems. Retrieved February 27, 2015, from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/02/techniques-for-unleashing-student-work-from-learning-management-systems/

The study concluded that for online classes that range from 16 to 40 students, increasing class size as much as 25 percent does not significantly affect student grades, credits earned in the next session, or enrollment in the next session. The preliminary paper discussed the implications for the results, suggesting impact on cost savings for institutions with an online program with large numbers of students and classes. For instance, establishing class size limits of 40 students as opposed to 30 students could have positive financial implications through instructor compensation.  The researchers acknowledged limitations of the study, which was the sample of relatively small online classes.

"Daniel J Levitin explains how our addiction to technology is making us less efficient"

"Daniel J Levitin explains how our addiction to technology is making us less efficient"

A nice Slideshow outlining how to access Open Education Sources.

A language learning tool, that's free. Very addictive, uses a game based structure. My students love it.

A great web 2.0 tool that I use in my French classes to reinforce vocabulary. Could easily be used in non language classes.

This site has a great list of Web 2.0 tools for educators to use in their classroom.

Google is amazing...instead of a virtual get-together on Skype, try Google Hangouts and for teachers, you could "hold virtual meetings, hosting guest speakers, or creating a video podcast." Also--it is a free service!

I know I need this! "Want to step your Twitter game up? Think you're supposed to actually type a full 140 characters for each tweet? Not quite. That's just one of the many handy tips found in this useful Twitter Cheat Sheet."

Offline use of iPads: "Just about every article on using iPads in education involves one key feature: connectivity. Whether it's wi-fi or cellular service, being connected to the web is by far the most important feature for iPads in the classroom. Otherwise, it's just what the tech-bloggers call a 'brick' and is essentially worthless. Right?"

A course using Canvas to disseminate content and assignments around open learning.

Jean K brought this to my attention.

A web 2.0 that allows students to build timelines. I used this in my History class and the students found it relatively easy to work with. Also it was free.

A writing tool with sets of pictures by different artists that students can organize to create prompts for their writing. Stories can be saved to student accounts, and shared with, and commented on by their classmates

An inspiring vision of where our schools could be headed, with students utilizing the power of the internet to the fullest, and becoming fully responsible for what they are learning and how they learn it.

A bit of a departure from education per se, but an interesting look at tweeting and where it may be evolving. And if Facebook is now 'old' how soon will it take for Twitter to be old...?