Interesting reactions to this picture:
- Someone younger than 20 says, “What is the blue thingy?”
- Someone younger than 10 says, “What is the red thingy?”
- A techy says, “The disk won’t work. It is inserted backwards.”
Celebrate our differences!
“As designers we have to understand that the interface we create dictates the action of the people using it.” —
Teachers are designers. We design learning experiences for our students. Do you feel that not enough students come to office hours and review sessions? Could we create a better interface to collect their questions so that they can get the help they need? Do you feel that students don’t speak up in class? Could we create a better interface to get them collaborating outside of class so that they feel more comfortable speaking up in class? How do your students communicate with other students when they need help? Facebook, text messages, twitter, email? How do we make it easy for them to use these technologies? For example, a person with a blog often includes small icons after each blog post. Click on the icon and you can post that item to the desired system, with your comments and questions attached. Blogs often have a “comment” button where people can ask questions or add to the discussion of the topic. How can we add this functionality to the learning experiences in our courses? Do we want to?
You Design It, They Do It | Smashing Magazine
“We’re going to see classrooms moving away from lectures to a more collaborative environment, heavy on group projects.” —
Nice article, as the beginning of a series on technology in higher ed. Comments on Blackboard’s containment of content into silos, Instructure Canvas’ view of content as open, the role of learning spaces, the changes being brought by instant access to information, and more,
(Source: Ars Technica)
How can (will?) the Internet and open publishing of data and written material change scholarly publishing? Here is an interesting take on that question. It is part of a slideshare, available at http://goo.gl/6OotO.
“TheCN.com is a new LMS that provides a social network that enables global interaction of learners.” —
How many learning management systems (LMS) do we need? Here is a new one that focuses on creating global communities around subject and courses.
New social network launched for classrooms and lifelong learners
“Some clumsy attempts at blended learning are to put PowerPoint slides online along with some narration, reduce face to face by one class a week, and call the course “blended”.” —
Blended learning blends on-line and face-to-face learning activities. Research seems to support that it can improve student learning, when implemented correctly. The recent Sloan-C Blended Learning Conference in Milwaukee seems to have had a number of valuable sessions on how to accomplish this.
PILOTed: Our thoughts from Sloan-C Blended Learning Conference 2012
What computers are students using at the University of Miami? In the last week we have been monitoring usage of a link that students use to evaluate their courses. As you can see in the chart, more students are using Macintosh computers than Windows computers. Not a lot more, but there is a lead. Since, by observations, far more students seem to own a Mac than a Windows PC, perhaps they are using the computers in the library (all Windows PCs) or computers at home in larger numbers.
Guy Kawasaki on enchantment for achieving influence -
Guy Kawasaki was the Macintosh Evangelist. He continues to share his many passions. In this case he talked about Hiw to enchant people. The blog is by someone who attended, not Guy.
“Remind me, why are we using an LMS again??.” —
http://goo.gl/e3a2K This provides an interesting chart of usage of various components of the Blackboard system at a University and asks the question, if no one is using the special services, and the services that are being used are available for free, why do we pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for a Learning Management System (LMS)?
My quick respnse is the that (1) only the experimenters and early adopters are willing to figure out how to use the free alternatives like Wordpress, (2) having all the “course sites” together makes it easier for the students to find and keep track of what is happening, and (3) the early and especially the late majority need training and support that would be difficult with fragmented services.
Having this discussion is vital at every institution. If you don’t have a reason other than “everyone is doing it” then shut it down.
(Source: moreorlessbunk.wordpress.com)
“Among the problems on college campuses today are that students study for exams and faculty encourage them to do so.” —
Nice assay from the Chronicle on learning versus testing.
(Source: chronicle.com)