Group items tagged

Useful post on the why change doesn't work in unis. We're attacking the wrong thing and need to create context for academics.

UBC centre for teaching, learning and technology organisational chart - positioned under the Provost Academic with senior advisory board - interesting.

"A few changes in my professional profile at UBC in recent weeks… My old Office of Learning Technology has merged with the former Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth to become the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology." So maybe we're just following UBCs lead?

NZ Unis Academic Audit Unit reports on all NZ unis.

"Yovisto is a video search engine specialized on educational video content". Recommended by Prof Zinke.

"ITSE is one of many academic organizations that is using the virtual world of Second Life to make it possible for global participants to share their knowledge. This brief tour of ITSE island and a snippet from a recent presentation, gives viewers some idea of how educators might leverage this virtual world for learning."

Australian Learning and Teaching Council, formerly CARRICK. A number of recent reports available including Learning leaders in times of change: Academic leadership capabilities for Australian higher education and The RED report: the contribution of sessional teachers to higher education

" new piece of free software to help students and universities manage academic references more easily has been developed by the Open University and its partners."

"This is an initiative from the University of Otago, the University of Auckland, Wellington Institute of Technology, the University of Canterbury, and supported by Telecom NZ.  It is an open access national virtual world grid based on open source software.  It operates on NZ-based servers hosted at Otago, Auckland and Canterbury Universities, and leverages other national investments in IT infrastructure through deployment on the high-speed KAREN (Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network). The grid has been set up with an academic focus and will be used for research and education, as well as for proof-of-concept application deployments and testing.  The objectives of the NZVWG initative are to: Undertake both experimental and routine use of virtual worlds in teaching and research;Develop engaging, interactive in-world content customised for NZ use; andDevelop new context-specific plugins enabling interaction between the virtual and real (non-virtual) worlds. "

Interesting article reporting an academic paper which suggests that forcing cognitive overload through the use of 'bad' font choices can actually improve comprehension. Make it hard to read and you are forced to concentrate on it rather than it slipping off your braincells. 

"The push towards web-based learning at universities has halved student attendance rates in some courses and dramatically increased working hours for lecturers, a survey of academics has found." Oh dear!

Some real nonsense from the Age. No refs to anything and lots of out of context stats. "We talked to 12 academics .." and from that, education is going to hell in a handcart. This article is a bare C at 1st year level - if that.

Using game design techniques to improve academic engagement.

"Video is having a huge impact on education for both younger and older students, and that impact can be felt academically, socially, and financially. This panel from Streaming Media East explores them all."

"This review essay examines literature from a variety of disciplines on the technological, social, behavioural, and neuroscientific impacts that the Internet is having on the practice of reading."

Martin Weller posits the current context for academia in light of the financial and funding hardships. A second post looks at the impact on educational technology.

Academics working out examples as in a masterclass. Haven't had time to check out yet.