Group items tagged

Myth 1 - Online Learning Is Impersonal Myth 2 - Too Much Going On Myth 3 - My Class Is Unique Myth 4 - Blogs Are for Navel Gazing Myth 5 - Discussion Forums Push on Strings Myth 6 - Online Group Projects Are Impossible Myth 7 - Tech Problems Will Derail Teaching Myth 8 - You Cannot Convey Passion Online Myth 9 - Virtual Classroom as a Literal Translation Myth 10 - Faculty Training Is About Technology

"For as long as eLearning has been around, it has been haunted by the voices of those who aim to criticize its authenticity, viability, and quality. But is it true? Do students of traditional institutions boast more success than those who've chosen distance learning? It's time for some of these myths to die."

"Deconstructing The Myth of Learning Styles "

Article refutes five commom myths about MOOCs 1. Fail to engage students in effective pedagogical practices 2. Deny students mentoring experiences with scholars passionate about their research 3. Lack the rigor of an on-campus curriculum 4.Provide, at best, superficial and narrowly defined training rather than deep understanding 5.Are an attempt to replace faculty"

Some notes about Jisc's OER pilot programme.

5 little things about Twitter for educators - well myths dispelled. You already know these but could be handy for a PD session.

(Article not new and thought I had already bookmarked it) Reports on work by OU 'debunking' Prensky native/immigrant thesis. Don't think it does at all and I argued at time that we ad to stop viewing concepts in such dichotomous ways.

Useful list of myths / misconceptions about copyright and fair use and education.

Whoever the folks are at StooTV, they have pulled together clips of 30 action films from 1919 and 1973, and put them side by side with almost the same scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark- it is about 13 minutes of shot-by-shot comparison.

More than a decade into the 21st century and we are still keeping learners and teachers prisoners of the analog past by enforcing outdated mandates that ban and block them from using the digital resources of their world. 

Interesting read

Crystal's relaxed style and unassuming manner are at the forefront as he discusses the impact of texts and tweets on written language use. Crystal is actually quite positive about their impact and discusses findings relating the number of texts a student sends and their attainment in formal testing - contrary to conventional wisdom texting is actually positively related to school achievement. 

Rebuttal to Wesley Fry's TMI post

Slightly old hat nowadays but handy take on natives over-hype.

Countering the stuff that gets said about Google Apps For Education. A bit long winded but some useful reminders and links.

"Within a week of the emergence of Occupy Wall Street, a library surfaced in the midst of the protest. Staffed by volunteers and comprised entirely of donated materials, the People's Library offers books and media to the public, provides basic reference assistance and has built an online catalog of their holdings. In this paper, I analyze the People's Library in terms of larger discussions of libraries, technology and activism. Drawing on personal experiences volunteering at the Library as well as text from the Library's blog, I argue that the People's Library offers two counter arguments to conventional claims about the public library: first, that libraries are being existentially threatened by the emergence of digital technologies and second, that a library's institutional ethics are located solely or predominantly in the content of its collection. Using the People's Library as a kind of conceptual case study, I explore the connections between public libraries, digital technologies and activist ideologies."

"'We found no evidence for any discontinuity in technology use around the age of 30 as would be predicted by the Net Generation and Digital Natives hypothesis,' says the report. What the reseachers do find interesting and worthy of further study is the correlation--which is independent of age--between attitudes to technology and approaches to studying. In short, students who more readily use technology for their studies are more likely than others to be deeply engaged with their work."

That last point is pretty powerful. Need to get the data replicated elsewhere as next stage. But as always, different people are different!