Terence Armentano - eResume & ePortfolio

I know this vid has been around for a while, but it is pretty funny and worth sharing. Enjoy!

A colleague of mine at BGSU, Anthony Fontana, has a great post on his blog about the exciting world of live broadcasting on the web. There is a lot of good information in his post about using this technology for teaching and learning online. He asks, “How can these tools be used in education? How is this different than simple video conferencing?”

• Faculty, students, and other individuals (visiting lecturers, professionals, etc…) can interact from great distances while still having access to all media and desktop tools needed for dynamic discussions
• Recordings of these interactions can be documented and distributed asynchronously
• Like podcasting and video helped to create a culture of user-generated material so too might live media (there are many “live shows” already gaining popularity on these sites
• As mobile video becomes more mainstream, so too will live feeds of people’s lives: aka. Lifecasting

Check it out here

I highly recommend all teachers watch this video of Michael Wesch at the University of Manitoba on the Future of Education. In addition, you should show this to to your students and have some solid discussion about it. If you teach online, simply post it on a discussion forum and have at it.

Michael does a good job of giving you the BIG picture regarding the current state of education and technology and what he is doing with his class to improve the learning landscape. This video is a very good companion to my University 2.0 blog post. At the core we find that the collective body of knowledge is all around us in the air via the internet so why are we still emphasizing memorization as the primary form of education. Almost any question that can be asked on a test can be looked up in minutes, even seconds on a phone, so how is our educational system adapting? How are they preparing students to think critically, creatively, collaboratively, and communicate digitally? The Internet and specifically the more evolved web 2.0, is moving culture and education from an authoritarian one-way download of information to a collaborative upload/download/interactive experience. Because so much information is readily available, teaching students how to ask good questions, critique ideas, and disseminate quality information from bunk is quite central to the new learning landscape.

University of Manitoba: Information Services and Technology - Michael Wesch and the Future of Education

During his presentation, the Kansas State University professor breaks down his attempts to integrate Facebook, Netvibes, Diigo, Google Apps, Jott, Twitter, and other emerging technologies to create an education portal of the future.

11 Things You Shouldn’t Leave For School Without

A simple list to simplify your life. When you first arrive at college you will be introduced to problems that you never knew existed. While no list will ever include a solution to all of your ills, this one hits on some things that you may not have considered.

Though I haven’t tried all of these services, some of them look pretty cool. For example, at Ottobib.com, you can enter the book’s name or ISBN, and this website does your bibliography for you in any format.

George Siemens and Stephen Downes are going to attempt what some have called a MOOC - Massively Open Online Course - and so far some 1200 participants have signed up. The course will focus on the connectivist theory of learning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism_(learning_theory) and in some sense will be an experiment testing the theory itself.

Connectivism - LTCWiki

Connectivism and Connective Knowledge is a twelve week course that will explore the concepts of connectivism and connective knowledge and explore their application as a framework for theories of teaching and learning. It will outline a connectivist understanding of educational systems of the future. George Siemens and Stephen Downes – the two leading figures on connectivism and connective knowledge - will co-facilitate this innovative and timely course.

I thought the results for a Google search I performed on “distance learning + gas prices” was pretty interesting. What do you think? Since most subjects can be taught online effectively and driving to class is becoming more $$$ for students and teachers, people are looking for online options. I have always said that online courses and programs add immense value to the traditional brick and mortar university (See University 2.0) and this is just another example. Online courses can be flexible, accessible, engaging, interactive, and very personal. As students continue to discover both the monetary and educational benefits of online learning, they will continue to look for the option as they hunt for the right university. Those universities that are paying attention to the needs of modern day students will benefit. BGSU, my university, which has been around since 1910, seems to get it as they have been adding more online courses every year since 2000. Check out our online degrees

This is an interesting button free environment. Find out how much you like or dislike mouse clicking as part of the navigation experience for websites. The navigation for this site is designed so that one does not need to ever click on the mouse button to get around the site. This poses some interesting concepts for future web interface design. After visiting the site let us know if you miss the mouse click. http://www.dontclick.it/

As the competition heats up in the land of Learning Management Systems (LMS), Blackboard is offering to partner with Syracuse to develop an open source plugin that will send data back and forth between Sakai and Blackboard. Some see this as Blackboard’s way of trying to put everything under 1 roof (their roof). Others see it as being good for the community at large as one might be able to choose which technology to use for various scenarios. For example, a school might have blackboard as their portal and LMS, but maybe they would like to use Moodle as the LMS and keep Blackboard as the portal. It sounds like this plugin may offer that solution. Personally, I think most major Learning Management Systems are capable of performing quite similar functions these days, so one must accurately count the cost of each system at their institution. I think more and more of the LMS market is moving open source because of its high quality, low cost, and intelligent community, which might be frightening if one is trying to sell a product that others are giving away for free. Just my take. What is yours?

A Bridge Between Blackboard and Open Source? :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education’s Source for News, Views and Jobs

A Bridge Between Blackboard and Open Source?

Blackboard, the dominant player in course management software, has the ability to inspire devotion and, for the more fervid open-source adherents, not a little contempt. So today’s announcement may cause a stir among those more apt to liken Blackboard to the devil than a gentle giant: The company is partnering with Syracuse University to develop a way to integrate Blackboard with Sakai, one of the primary open-source alternatives.

The idea is simple. Search, Contribute, Reward. Search for a topic using the Scour search engine (it searches google, yahoo, and msn), then rate the links with a thumbs up or thumbs down, then accumulate points for your contribution and get rewarded with money. It is an interesting idea to move the search engine forward and I wonder how well it will catch on. Like any web 2.0 idea, the community base is key to success and maybe the monetary reward may be enough incentive to boost the community participation. We will see. Overall, it sounds interesting and I’ll check it out. Let us know what you think of it. Scour - The social search engine

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