Since I was reading through the speech anyway, I decided to feed it to http://wordle.net to see how it looks. Now, I'm sharing it. Certainly, "Dartmouth" comes out on top, but it is reassuring to see a few other terms rising above as well, such as "education", "experience", "learning", "people", and "passion."
Current Affairs
September 29, 2009
June 24, 2009
the college of 2020
The Chronicle Research Service is releasing its first report on what higher education will look like in 2020. The 3 part report will cost Chronicle subscribers $75 each, with the first report focusing on students in 2020. The executive summary of the report can be found here.
In 2020 I'll have 2 kids in college, so I'm particularly interested in what their experience will be like. My take on the executive summary is that the Chronicle is forecasting what is currently innovative will become mainstream.
The Chronicle does not forecast radical changes in the construction or delivery of higher ed. No end to the separate (and usually unrelated) courses or distinct semesters. No move to project based multidisciplinary learning.
The changes the Chronicle predicts include students time shifting their consumption of course materials, more use of mobile devices to interact with the curriculum, and the growth of hybrid courses supported by online interactions. The overriding message appears to be that students will expect the convenience and control in learning that they get with their entertainment and communications platforms.
I wonder if the report is worth the cost? Paying this sort of money in today's economic climate requires, I think, the materials to help us make a strategic case among campus stakeholders for directions we would like to go in. Help us make the case for a mobile strategy, or for investing in digitized versions of curricular materials, or tools to allow students to create and share their own knowledge. We have no shortage of ideas to where technology can catalyze enhancements in learning. What we need are tools and methods to translate our vision to reality.
June 15, 2009
Missing the boat or choosing not to sail?
I'm wondering if Dartmouth wants to be noticed for its absence, is simply choosing not to participate, or if no one is really paying attention to the places where we may want to throw our hat into the ring as well. What am I referring to? Presence.
For example, take at look at http://academicearth.org/universities/ and you'll find Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Yale. You don't find Dartmouth on the list. Or try iTunes U and again you'll not find Dartmouth on board. Search through the TED talks for "Dartmouth" and you find two hits--one about Pilobolus and one in which Richard Dawkins mentions our microbots. I know these are all venues for lecture capture, in general, and I recently commented about my misgivings recently in a reply to Malcolm Brown's post. But, I'm not focusing on lecture capture. I'm talking about conversations.
We need our faculty participating in the "public" conversations about their field and about their work. For better or worse, we need to keep up with the Jones' of the Ivy League. And the Internet and social media make the cost barrier of entry essentially negligible. The YouTube Channel is a good first step, but we need to do more and we need to encourage more faculty to become active participants.
This is about telling Dartmouth stories and being part of the conversations. Dartmouth needs to do a better job of telling the world what happens here. This isn't Vegas! It shouldn't stay here.
May 07, 2009
the future of blackboard?
Some thoughtful comments by Anthony on Blackboard's latest acquisition.
I tend to be a little less worried, as I see the real competition for Blackboard not in another paid CMS but in open/community source (Moodle, Sakai) and in consumer Web 2.0 services that can be integrated to move beyond the traditional CMS model (small pieces loosely joined). In fact, I think Blackboard needs to consolidate the CMS market if they are going to thrive and grow given the main competitive forces.
All of which leads me to come back to my prediction of 12/19/08 that Blackboard is ripe for being purchased. In that post I identified Microsoft as the lightly buyer, and the Angel news gives me more reason to think that Microsoft acquisition makes sense.
Why Microsoft?
- Blackboard under Microsoft will be able offer a robust, vertically integrated service. As CMS moves to the cloud (with other server based apps), Microsoft can insure high quality (and low-cost) services with their cloud infrastructure. This infrastructure can be leveraged to drive down costs and increase margins. Microsoft can also combine sales for servers (server OSs), offering campuses turnkey solutions for local hosting.
- Educational sales cycles are long, and driven by relationships (given turnover is comparatively low in higher ed.). A Microsoft / Blackboard alliance would eliminate some redundancies and build on the relationships in place. Buyers prefer to deal with less vendors, so full services and solutions are a plus.
- Microsoft currently has ~$20 billion cash on hand.....Blackboard is a good business with reasonably strong growth prospects to invest this money (and there are few good options nowadays). The market cap of Blackboard may be a little high given earnings (the P/E seems out of whack to me, meaning the stock seems over-valued) - but given Microsoft's cash position I think that even an over valued Blackboard makes strategic sense.
- The companies services and culture seem compatible to me. An acquisition would allow Blackboard to focus on innovating the product and customer service, as back-end issues would be resolved while significantly expanding developing and marketing resources (particularly overseas).
Even though I think an acquisition is in the best interest of Blackboard, Microsoft, and their shareholders - I'd have to think about if such a deal would be in the best intersest of IHEs.
May 06, 2009
The Blackboard monopoly steamrolls on...
First it was WebCT, then it was the patent dispute with Desire2Learn, and now it is Angel.
How is Blackboard able to avoid investigation for monopolistic practices in the CMS market?
This is disappointing to say the least. Blackboard claimed it would not pursue patent lawsuits against open source products, but how long will that promise hold. To say this is troubling is an understatement, even if Angel were completely willing to be bought out.
May 04, 2009
why universities are in trouble
Thought provoking essay in the New York Review of Books: The Universities in Trouble By Andrew Delbanco.
Reviews the impact on the current endowment crisis, coupled with shortfalls in state and federal support for higher education. Delbanco notes that higher education is increasingly becoming unfordable for a growing portion of talented potential students, with many families left with crippling tuition bills and educational debt.
Public institutions, including community colleges, are increasingly squeezed by increased demand coupled with declining public funding.
Can educational technology provide some of the solutions for some of the financial problems of American Higher Education? Ideas? Thoughts?
It seems important to step out of our boxes and learn how to talk about educational technology within the context of the economic environment.
A second interesting article (courtesy of my brother at Duke) profiles David Wiley from BYU. Wiley argues that universities are in danger of becoming irrelevant by 2020.
I'm not so quick to dismiss folks like Wiley. Having worked an in institution (Encyclopedia Britannica) with a long venerable history that was rapidly displaced by a disruptive competitor (Wikipedia), I am very sensitive to the possibilities that things can change.
April 10, 2009
A roundup of interesting links
Just wanted to share these links with readers. They're coming from many directions today, so please forgive the randomness.
1) From Inside Higher Ed is this column by Scott McLemee on "Print or Byte?" discussing the accelerating shift to digital publishing and the "hidden revolution" being driven by scholarly publishers. Much of the column is in fact citing an article appearing in Against the Grain by Sandy Thatcher, director of the Penn State University Press. Of particular interest is the note that, “The sole area of resistance to this revolution so far has been the publication of illustrated books." Think, "art history."
While I agree that there is a particular pleasure derived from viewing artistic coffee-table tomes, I do think that digital publishing of artistic texts can provide something that is more interactive and richer, too. PDFs may not be the answer, but as devices like the Kindle evolve (perhaps into my vision of the thin-film retractable scroll) there is room for an art text digital revolution as well. I would also agree with McLemmee's conclusion that physical books are likely to persist for some time for reasons that go beyond the text.
2) The Library of Congress now has a YouTube channel! Huzzah!
3) net.effect is the blog of Evgeny Morozov over on the Foreign Policy website. This blog looks at "How technology shapes the world." The posts are fantastic and I recommend adding it to your list of reads. It will be interesting to see if he continues to maintain his personal blog as well, though I think that he will. Both are worth checking out.
4) The remix culture may have a new meme, the topic being explored by John Biggs at CrunchGear in "Birth of a meme: Goldeneye Dance." In short, a glitch in a video game spawned an animated music video exploiting the glitch that in turn has spawned live-action reproductions of the glitch by people in costume.
5) In another line of remixing culture, are you aware of the use of Facebook and Twitter to recast literature and history? Ok, not actually using Facebook and Twitter, but parodying the format of these web 2.0 tools to retell Hamlet on Facebook, Pride and Prejudice on Facebook, and a host of spoofy Historical Tweets. Still, I would argue that to successfully do this requires a good deal of understanding about the original work.
6) Robin Ashford, who write the "Librarian by Design" blog, yesterday posted the entry "Should Academic Librarians Assist in Virtual Worlds?" I enjoy reading about her experiences as a RL and SL Reference and Distance Services Librarian at George Fox University and am regularly impressed by how adept she is in Second Life. In this post she asks, "Does it make sense to have a librarian who is conversant and able to assist when needed by faculty teaching classes in those worlds? Might some institutions consider this an asset," a question that reminds me of the challenges we often face regarding the value of course redesign and technology integration. Are these skills being understood and valued for hiring, tenure and promotion?
And finally, two entertaining links:
7) Slumdog Millionaire as movie remix mashup, while it lasts.
8) ToneMatrix, a fun sound toy. This is actually very similar to a feature of the Korg synthesizer for the Nintendo DS.
April 09, 2009
what does the nytimes on the iphone/touch teach us about education?
Mark Bowden (one of my favorite writers) has a great piece in the May issue of Vanity Fair on the New York Time's (and its hereditary Publisher Arthur Sulzberger) struggles in the digital age.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/05/new-york-times200905
In the same years that the Time's has developed it's marvelous Website and wonderful mobile platforms its stock has plummeted from $50 to $5 a share. The company is drowning in debt, and has a long term strategy of simply "outliving" its competition with a "last man standing" strategy.
Does the financial decline of the Times during a period of technical innovation at the Paper have anything to teach us at our similarly old and esteemed institutions? What parallels can we draw between the newspaper business and the higher ed business?
I'm honestly not sure. I do know that the way I consume the Times now is almost totally on my mobile device (a Touch). I don't read the print newspaper. Seldom the online version. For me, it is the Touch all the way. And I don't pay a thing. The Times on the Touch allows easy portability, fast scrolling through stories, catching up on topics, and anytime convenience (my Touch is always with me at hand). Reading on my Touch is not intrusive, when I'm reading the Times at breakfast I don't feel like I'm shutting my kids out - as the screen is small enough that they are in my peripheral vision (but big enough that the reading experience is good).
One conclusion is that curricular reading and consumption of materials (videos, presentations etc.) will move (and I think rather quickly) to mobile devices. I've argued that if we don't lead, facilitate or support this transition that we will loose the battle for the attention of our students - loosing opportunities to inspire students to love our disciplines as we do.
But this may have been the same argument that the Times made. In releasing the iPhone/Touch application for the Times, the Paper has insured that I will probably never pay for a paper copy (or subscription again). For years I subscrbed to the Times. Now I don't - and would not. If everyone in my house has a mobile device then we can all read the same section.
As curriculum becomes increasingly disintermediated from the institution and the professor - as will happen with the spread of open curriculum and mobile devices - then the primary value proposition that remains is the power to confer the credential. Again, I am not sure if these developments will prove disruptive to our business models in higher education (as they have in music, newspapers, movies and soon book publishing). I do know that we should pay attention to those who think that the old way will end (see the EduPunks), even as we toil as members of the Ancien Regime.
April 08, 2009
an educational use for twitter - a blog I'm going to read - and libraries and Kindles
Today's Wired Campus profiles a professor who shows a live Twitter stream from his students in conjunction with his normal curricular materials:
"Cole W. Camplese, director of education-technology services at
Pennsylvania State University at University Park, prefers to teach in
classrooms with two screens — one to project his slides, and another to
project a Twitter stream of notes from students."
This is an idea we could try in workshops, training sessions - and the first real use of Twitter for active learning that makes sense to me.
In other news, I discovered a that Ellen Wagner - formerly head Education person at Macromedia and then Adobe - has a blog: ELearning Roadtrip - with a motto: Sustaining innovation and accelerating mainstream adoption of learning technology solutions"
http://elearningroadtrip.typepad.com/elearning_roadtrip/
I met Ellen a couple of times at various conferences and events, and always felt like her thinking was ahead of the curve.
Finally..it was fun to see our local Howe library profiled in a Library Journal article about lending out Kindle's.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6649814.html?rssid=191
Seems our local world is taking some steps towards experimenting with how digital books can be leveraged for readers. I think it is ironic that the Library world seems to have been consumed by what Google is doing - where the real story is the power that Amazon has with it's Kindle and ownership of Audible. We need to find ways to license these services to allow lending.
March 27, 2009
The artist Kutiman demonstrates why the remix culture will always be ahead of litigators
Ophir Kutiel, or "Kutiman," as he is known professionally, is an an Israel-based artist who has now made a name for himself by releasing an online video music project called ThruYOU, an album made up entirely of remixed YouTube videos, fully credited, but not licensed. The first, "Mother of All Funk Chords" is below.
Lawrence Lessig's praise for the project is perfect:
"If you come to the Net armed with the idea that the old system of copyright is going to work just fine here, this more than anything is going to get you to recognize: you need some new ideas."
Merlin Mann's blog entry is also worth reading.
This work reminds me of the Disney-critical "A Fair(y) Use Tale" video that was put together a year or two ago.
March 21, 2009
Sharing 2.0 = Library 2.0
I find this discussion on this blog sharing 2.0 to be absolutely fascinating - and somewhat ironic.
Ironic because the debaters work in a library (or close proximity to a library).
Seems like it is reasonable that members of our community would have access to books to share with colleagues, particularly books that contribute to our discipline and professional commitments.
Yet, since the contributors to this blog are also folks who consume a significant proportion of our reading in digital format (and here I'm not distinguishing between audio or e-books, they are both digital copies), we do not get these books from our institutions library.
One irony is how much easier it should be to share a digital copy within our community. A digital copy takes no shelf-space, and one book can be read by multiple people from a single purchase. Is it not reasonable to ask why libraries cannot negotiate purchase agreements for digital copies, ones that allow for flexibility of payment based on usage? If a number of people in an institution want to read one book at one time in order to discuss and debate then this seems like this would be an excellent use of acquisition funds. Books are valuable when read and discussed.
It's the old Railroad arguments. Are our libraries in the business of paper books or in the business of facilitating and supporting reading? (And the production of knowledge that depends on the availability of books, periodicals, media etc.). If the lives of the authors of CCBlog are any indicator at all then it seems that a good proportion of reading has migrated to the digital world. I'd hazard a guess that this will be how are students will read, and that we might even reach a wider range of learners if we provided books in all their digital formats.
It's ironic that we are trying to grapple towards a model of sharing 2.0 as unconnected individuals, where in this case the power of the institution to aggregate purchases and enter into larger scale licensing deals is really what is needed.
Each year I pay over a $1,000 dollars for digital books. Ironic given that I work in a library.
Sharing 2.0 = Library 2.0
The answer is (literally) just outside our doors.
March 16, 2009
Shirky on why the newspaper business is in trouble - thoughts on education
Shirky's post is generating some good discussion on the Web.
Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/
Worth reading - if anything an example of a good discussion piece for a range of courses, and an example of how to build an argument. Shirky links the demise of the newspaper business with the dawn of the printing press, an inflection point in history and a time we will look back on as unsettled. We do not know what will replace the newspaper, or how the social good that newspaper provide will be replaced, only that that the existing newspaper business model is unsustainable.
I have a deep interest in failure. Perhaps influenced by my own biography of participating in failures including Britannica.com Education (BritannicaU) and recently the imminent closing (as a separate College) of the online/hybrid Leadership Program that I helped develop and have taught in.
What can we learn in our higher education business from those in the newspaper and music businesses?
The first question is how similar are the industries?
As educators we identify with journalists (at least I do) - we think if things had been a little different we may have ended up in the newsroom instead of the classroom. We both tell stories for a living. We are both driven by a curiosity about the world. We both think what we do means something.
The failure of the music industry to deal with the digital age (see Appetite for Self-Destruction by Knopper) parallels those of newspapers.
The music industry and higher ed?
Perhaps we both enjoyed a long run in controlling the delivery and packaging of our product? For us the course, for them the CD. The music industry got disintermediated, their content broken down into chunks (downloads of songs), and freely shared in the market. Certainly learning now does not need to be delivered at the course level, and just as record labels once controlled the content (artists, CD's) etc., colleges and universities don't control all the educational content that is freely available and compelling on the Web (from TED talks on out).
The big difference, of course, is that colleges and universities are not really selling an education or learning, we are selling a credential. We have the power to confer the degree, the diploma. The scarcity is the credential, and the rarer that credential the more valuable in the marketplace.
The danger, as I see it, is for the credential and the learning to increasingly diverge.
The opportunities for learning beyond the walls of higher education continue to expand. We know about the proliferation of amazing educational content on the Web (Talks@Google is one of my favorites...and of course iTunesU could keep any student busy for a while). You may say, "but learning is social" - and I'd say that social learning sites such as Ning are quickly scaling in people, methods and tools to provide wonderful social learning opportunities.
So what is to be done? How can colleges and universities avoid the fates of newspapers and record labels, and thrive in the digital, Web 2.0, world?
Some ideas (none of which are original and I think pretty much what we try to do each day):
- Divest ourselves of the idea that our job is to transmit content (and then assess how well that content has been absorbed). Accept that content is abundant.
- Invest in methods and that promote students as the creators and sharers of content.
- Personalize learning environments to play to students strengths and help them discover and nurture their passions.
- Value and support multiple intelligences, and help our students discover where their intelligences match with communities filled with folks with similar brains.
- Continually strive to incorporate the learning material being produced outside our walls within our courses, while concurrently working to get the learning material we are producing into the larger discussion.
- Encourage experimentation at every level of learning.
The dangers of failing to close a gap between the value of the credential and the opportunities for learning outside of the credential are many.
I think that the greatest risk we face is one of relevancy. Students will continue to come to our lectures and take our tests, but we risk them doing so primarily for the grade, the credit and the degree rather then in pursuit of learning. From my experience, the ratio of engaged learning (process based) to goal oriented (grade/credit) is directly proportional to class size. Learning is difficult to scale.
Why sit through a lecture and exams when one can learn what one is truly interested and passionate about by downloading great lectures to an iPod and discussing topics on a social network? Wesch has warned about the danger of the traditional college class gaining in numbers but simultaneously declining in relevance to our students.
Absent an insistence on authentic learning, there is little to stop our classes from getting larger and continuously stressed for resources. This danger is most apparent at our public and state institutions, where funding cuts have increased class sizes and cut course offerings. Absent an insistence on authentic learning the less we will invest in new methods, tools and technologies that promote knowledge creation and collaboration. Schools that protect and prioritize learning will thrive in the long-run.
Perhaps the lesson of the newspaper industry and the music industry is that we need to keep focused on the real product of education, that is learning, and be willing to adapt and embrace new tools, methods and techniques. We need to stay focused on supporting learning, even if this means changing much of what we have always done (and have grown comfortable with) up until this time.
March 11, 2009
in defense of textbooks
In putting together my course for this summer I spent some time looking at syllabi from other faculty members. One thing that stood out for me was that the courses did not seem to use a textbook.
In speaking with the faculty in the Department in which I'm teaching the course I learned that the use of textbooks are frowned upon.
I'm here to argue that textbooks have a useful and important place - and when used correctly can significantly enhance courses.
First, the problems with textbooks (and why I suspect the culture in the Department is not use them). Textbooks have become, by and large, bloated and expensive monstrosities. Publishers come out with multi-hundred page editions, rich with graphics, boxes, charts, tables, case-studies, reflections, current issues - basically publishers throw the kitchen sink at the textbook.
They do this to justify the very high prices that are charged. And they do this to be as "inclusive" as possible - in order to get as much material in the text that a reviewer or faculty member might possibly want. They do this as some sections can then always be updated, therefore bringing out a new edition and charging new textbook prices (as publishers make no money from the used textbook market).
The result is the $150 1,000 page textbook. I know all this because I have worked in educational publishing as a consultant. The textbook business model depends on big adoptions and new editions.
So avoiding textbook altogether is a reasonable strategy when choosing the curriculum for a course, as much of the material can be found free from online sources and the student book dollars (and student time) can be spent on articles and monographs. Students can read "real" books - and avoid having to buy another textbook that will break their backs and wallets, and then either be re-sold back to the bookstore for a low price or sit on a shelf after the course and never be used again.
So if publishers have created these bloated and expensive textbooks then why am I defending them - and more importantly why do I plan to assign a textbook in my class? The answer is that we need to assign the "right" kind of textbooks, and we can use these textbooks to help us achieve significant learning objectives.
The "right" type of textbook is the briefest, most concise, stripped down book you can find. In my case, I found a text for 31.90 at Amazon...1.1 pounds and 400 brief pages (big font).
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073404314/student_view0/
Using a textbook in this course does a number of important and valuable things:
- A textbook helps students organize their knowledge and get a concise overview of the major areas, trends, and issues in the field.
- A textbook helps students learn the language of the discipline.
- A textbook gives me the freedom to spend time on the monographs, videos and other materials, as I'm confident that the basics of the discipline will be covered.
- A textbook, like this textbook, comes with ancillary materials. Important materials include a test bank that can be uploaded to Blackboard. I use the test bank and the Blackboard Quiz engine for formative, low-stakes assessment. The students can take the quizzes as many times as they need, in an open book and group format, to reach a certain floor. In this way they are consolidating their knowledge, moving from short-term to long-term memory.
- A textbook can provide an easy way to organize the modules in a course, as a great deal of work has been done to sequence and develop the modules, and this work can be quickly adapted for Blackboard course design and a syllabus.
- Often textbooks, even concise textbooks, come with rich media materials that can be easily integrated into the course.
In using a concise, lightweight textbook I'm getting all the benefits, with very few of the costs imposed by a traditional text. I believe that part of the culture has swung too far towards the anti-textbook camp, while other departments/courses would benefit from learning about concise textbooks and the value of pairing these textbooks with primary sources and monographs. These are curricular discussions we can engage in, particularly as textbook material often is twinned with material that can be uploaded to our Course Management System.
In a few years all textbooks will be e-books, making the concise versions all the more compelling.
March 02, 2009
a grand slam choice for our next Dartmouth President - and why Jim Yong Kim should blog
Jim Yong Kim appears to me to be a marvelous and inspired choice for our 17th President at Dartmouth. I say this on Dr. Kim's merits, although I can't help but to be happy that he is also married to a pediatrician.
Dr. Kim - the one request that I'd have is that you think about blogging!
A number of college presidents are using their blog to reach out to both their local communities, alumni and the greater world.
A blog would be a great way for the College community to get an unfiltered view about what is on your mind, what you are learning, what you think is important, and where you are investing your time. The comments feature in a blog allows for a flattening of the organization, as any member of the community can respond to your posts.
As you make the transition now would be a great time to start blogging, as the community is very curious about your impressions, thoughts, and strategic vision. Starting a blog would be a great signal throughout the organization that the College values this sort of communication, and would help move the College along to set guidelines, offer training, and support to other campus stakeholders who may also like to blog.
We have found that our blog in Curricular Computing has been a great tool to make connections across campus, as a blog entry will often serve as the first step to a relationship.
For case studies and advice on the importance of blogging (and the use of other social technologies), I recommend Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Li and Bernoff
And again, welcome to campus.
Some examples of College Presidents that blog:
John Maeda at RISD: http://our.risd.edu/
Michael S. Roth at Wesleyan: http://roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/
Ron Liebowitz at Middlebury: http://rononmiddlebury.wordpress.com/
Robert Caret at Towson: http://presidentcaret.org/
Michael Hoga at UCONN: http://blogs.uconn.edu/president/
Mark A. Emmert at U. of Washington: http://depts.washington.edu/presblog/blog/
February 13, 2009
podcast EDUCAUSE Now - The Age of Budget Cuts -- The Tower and the Cloud
Great podcast worth investing the time to download and listen. (Note - Subscribing to Educause Podcasts are a great way to keep up - they do a very nice job).
http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/educausenowshow12theageof/48207
The financial crisis has provided an opportunity to think about the mission of academic IT departments, particularly in an era of the commodification of services.
Both Richard Katz and James Hilton would make excellent candidates as speakers to bring to campus, as their messages and insights would spark conversation about where academic technology is heading and how we can take advantage of opportunities.
In particular, I was taken with Richard Katz's message that the "consumerization" of enterprise services provides an opportunity to re-focus our efforts on the core competencies and mission of our institutions, to focus on learning, while also having the benefit of being able to realize savings.
NYU Professor Stifles Blogging, Twittering by Journalism Student
While students reporting (both positively and negatively) about their courses, professors, etc., is nothing new, this article is an interesting read in this day of Twitter and live blogging. I wonder how faculty here at Dartmouth would respond?
From the PBS MediaShift site.
After New York University journalism student Alana Taylor wrote her first embed report for MediaShift on September 5, it didn't take long for her scathing criticism of NYU to spread around the web and stir conversations. Taylor thought that her professor, Mary Quigley, was not up to speed on social media and podcasting -- even though the class she was teaching was called "Reporting Gen Y." [Continue to full article]
February 07, 2009
lots on e-books
With Amazon about to release the Kindle 2, and Google releasing their digital book collection on cell phones, the blogosphere is full of articles on e-books. Good article on the "E-Book Revolution" in ComputerWorld - giving all the reasons why this medium will gain traction.
In higher ed. it always seemed like a no brainer that curriculum should migrate to e-books, from both a library side and a student demand side. Will be interesting to track how much collection budgets move to supporting this format.
As for me, I'm pretty excited about the Kindle 2 - as after playing with reading articles on my iTouch I'm not fully convinced that the form-factor supports reading for understanding.
January 11, 2009
lessig on colbert - great clip for teaching
Lessig's new book Remix look great (and is on my to read list) - one that would work well in a range of courses. Hope you enjoy the quick clip of Lessig on Colbert.
One reason I'm blogging this video is to have it for future teaching use. Perhaps have students respond to the video in a blog or discussion - or maybe role play in class taking Colbert's and Lessig's perspective (as Colbert really is a master of improv in his character).
Almost everyday I run across a video or clip that I think could have curricular applications. A learning content management system would be a great place to put a clip like this - tagged with keywords such as copyright, lessig, colbert, and hilarious.
Lessig has moved down the road - he'd be very high on my list of speakers to come and talk to us about open education. Are we doing enough to provide source content and easy tools that allow our students to learn by "remixing"?
___
January 07, 2009
top 5 challenges from educause teaching and learning community
http://connect.educause.edu/wiki/TLChallenges09
Great process for the community to vote on these. The top five are:
- Creating learning environments that promote active learning, critical thinking, collaborative learning, and knowledge creation.
- Developing 21st-century literacies among students and faculty (information, digital, and visual).
- Reaching and engaging today's learner.
- Encouraging faculty adoption and innovation in teaching and learning with IT.
- Advancing innovation in teaching and learning (with technology) in an era of budget cuts.
I think these are great. These could be turned into 5 questions we could ask ourselves as we decide on where to put our energies and resources, what projects to invest in, and which strategic directions we want to go in.
Note that none of these priorities have anything to do with technology per se, they are all about innovation, social change, and learning. Academic computing units need to put priorities such as these in our strategic plans, meaning that services that are not learning centric should be sourced when possible.
Would be an interesting exercise to map our current projects and ongoing services (and resources) against this list.
December 23, 2008
lawrence lessig talks about his new book remix on fresh air
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98591002
Lessig talks to Terry Gross about his new book Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy
Book is on my "to read" list (but has not come out on Audible yet).
Since Lessig is coming to Harvard he will be down the road - and I imagine he will have some interesting thing to say about open education. Perhaps a person to invite to campus?
Good interview (woud make a good piece of curriculum!) - Gross is the best interviewer on the planet.
Recent Comments