Group items tagged

This study reports the findings of an investigation of the factors influencing the use and usefulness of wikis in an introductory, undergraduate information systems course. Informed by the media choice, technology acceptance model from information systems research, and group collaborative learning research from the education literature, a survey instrument was developed and administered across the entire course. The study found that wiki use was influenced by the student's prior expertise with wikis, with their perceived usefulness of wikis being strongly influenced by their teachers' attitudes towards the technology, and the ease of access to the wikis. The students' overall attitude towards wikis was largely influenced by the extent to which they saw wikis as helping with their assignment work, and their intention to use wikis in the future was driven by their perception of wiki's usefulness. The paper concludes with an outline of the lessons learned from the study and recommendations for instructors who are thinking of using wikis in their teaching.

Cell phones are in the hands of the vast majority of adults, and whether schools like it or not, they're in the hands of most students. While many schools still see cell phones as a distraction rather than as an educational tool, it's hard to deny that these devices are quickly becoming the primary means by which we communicate, in or out of schools.

At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data -- including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper "laptop." In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he'll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all.

A new kind of technological literacy is emerging. While a certain amount of technical skills are important, the real goal should be in cultivating digital or new media literacies that are arising around this evolving digital nerve center. These skills allow working collaboratively within social networks, pooling knowledge collectively, navigating and negotiating across diverse communities, and critically analyzing and reconciling conflicting bits of information to form a clear and comprehensive view of the world.

A data visualization tool from IBM.

using word clouds and fusion tables to share and process data information with students

Creating data visualizations and word clouds is quite easy with the following tools.

PBL is still kind of a cool way to address standards and, too often these days, is simply coverage by another name. But its ultimate benefit is to help students think, learn, and operate in the new century by challenging them at deeper levels. That requires reversing the equation between skills and content: PBL is method for teaching students to find, process, understand, and share information, not a way to extend the industrial landscape of regurgitation and recall.

Infographics can change the way we learn, the way we see information put in front of us.  They help us digest that information and leads us to draw important conclusions more swiftly. After doing a little research online I was able to discover 10 gorgeous infographics on education that do more than simply show information, they relay it in a really potent and amazing way.

We're seeing more and more recruiters use the web as a place to search for talent and conduct employment background searches. This trend is set to increase year over year and I've been predicting that an "online presence search" will become as common as a drug test since 2007.

In 2008, I started a non-profit organization called the Khan Academy to deliver free online education. As it turns out, our tools have given students and teachers the power to "flip" the traditional classroom: Students can hear lectures at home and spend their time at school doing "homework"-that is, working on problems. It allows them to advance at their own pace, gaining real mastery, and it lets teachers spend more time giving one-to-one instruction.

I've been having my students use the social bookmarking site Diigo since the start of the school year. They've used it to keep track of information they find on the web, to share information with our class group, and also to respond to digital texts they read.

If you can break down what you're looking for in a good paper into a set of categories and assign a numerical value to each category, then you should definitely consider using Google Forms to help you grade. I just developed a quick and easy way to do this. Here's what I do.

Shows how online games create 4 characteristics (blissful productivity, strong social fabric, an urgent optimism, and epic meaning) in gamers that uniquely equip gamers to solve the world's problems.

At the recent THATCamp Southeast, I had a chance to teach a hands-on session for building interactive, geospatial timelines.

a social network all about the flipped classroom.

Tagging allows you to find content in other blogs that matches yours and possibly can provide you with additional insights and information about a subject area you are passionate about. But tagging can also serve a very valuable service for faculty using blogs as a class assignment. If your students are writing individual blogs for a class assignment/project, you can ask them to identify their blog posts with a specific tag, such as your name course name and section number.

An obvious tool to use for writing projects is a blog. Blogging software is free, web-based, and very easy to use. You can insert all kinds of stuff into a blog-images, multimedia, podcasts-and customize it according to your purposes. My two most popular blogging software tools are WordPress and blogger.

How can wikis be used in writing projects? Remember, a wiki is a collaborative tool, so writing projects using a wiki should include a collaborative aspect. Following are some ideas:

There are many, many ways to use Google docs. And Google docs is not only limited to word processing, but also includes shared spreadsheet and presentation (PowerPoint) features.