Heather Ross's List: EdTech @ SIAST Blog

"# Wikis help engage students in their learning while providing social interaction with their peers in the learning process.\n# A wiki assignment should enable students to work at the conceptual level of understanding on authentic projects where they can solve problems, discover relationships, discern patterns, and develop a deep understanding of content.\n# At the heart of a wiki project is collaborative knowledge building by students mediated by user-generated design, as explained in this article."

"Congratulations on getting a Twitter account (or having one for a while)! You're now taking part in the biggest social experiment in human history (more on that later). But just because you're floating in a global sea of idle thoughts doesn't mean you have to drown.\n\nYou can be a grownup and participate on Twitter, but it takes some doing. Here are the two ways I've found to use Twitter as an adult."

SIAST is with the U of A and other major universities on this one.

"The University of Alberta is the latest institution to show its opposition to the proposed new fee structure for licensing copyrighted works from Access Copyright, the copyright collective that licenses copying and course packs for most campuses in Canada.

The new fee structure proposed by Access Copyright to cover copying and course packs would charge universities $45 per full time student, versus the $3.38 per student universities currently pay. The Copyright Board of Canada is currently reviewing the new fee structure for approval."

Design mistakes to avoid when creating and using PowerPoint presentations.

If we were really serious about educational technology, we would... [Here are 10 to get you started.]

"This week I decided to take a shot at reverse instruction. I know for some, this is a controversial idea; after all, if I’m not lecturing my students, what am I doing? Personally, I think it’s beautiful.

Reverse instruction is the concept that lectures and other information can be delivered on-line, at home, leaving class time freed up for collaboration, problem solving and other hands-on activities. Lectures at home, problems at school. Flip. Why didn’t somebody think of this sooner?

I decided to use it to teach my students the basic concepts of neurons. For homework, I posted to our wiki a Khan Academy video, as well as, a couple of TED talks from leading neurologists to explain some of the purposes neurons have and cutting edge research that’s being done in the field. In total, maybe about 25 minutes of work.

I love the idea that my students are now being taught by leading neurologists. Shouldn’t all of our biology students be able to say that?"

If Alan's mom can do it, so can you.

"It was during last year’s visit when my Mom asked me, full of both innocence and curiosity, to explain Twitter to her- we had a good time after I seeded the request for an explanation out to my contacts, and did they ever respond. We captured that conversation in audio a year ago — see Twitter in Mom English."

Shelly has spent the past couple of weeks using a very student-centered approach in her classroom. The results have been astonishing (and touching). This is a must read for any educator.

It’s not lost on me that when I blog (or, in recent terms, don’t blog) or save a picture or put up a Tweet that I’m adding in some way to my own legacy, one that I can write and share in more amazing ways simply because I have the privilege of living at this moment. I don’t know if my kids or grandkids will ever take the time and effort to read or look at some of this stuff. I’m not much expecting them to. But they could.

"Free Resources and Lesson Plans for Teaching with Technology"

Short, but thought-provoking podcast on why to use multimedia like podcasts and vodcasts.

An important reminder to read the fine (and not so fine) print.

"“The Smurfs' Village,” a game for the iPhone and other Apple gadgets, was released a month ago and quickly became the highest-grossing application in the iTunes store. Yet it's free to download.

So where does the money come from? Kelly Rummelhart of Gridley, Calif., has part of the answer. Her 4-year-old son was using her iPad to play the game and racked up $66.88 in charges on her credit card without knowing what he was doing."

"An introduction to how Twitter can help teachers with their professional development."

paper.li organizes links shared on Twitter and Facebook into an easy to read newspaper-style format.

A great way to discover content that matters to you - even if you are not connected 24/7!

Eight percent of the American adults who use the internet are Twitter users. It is an online activity that is particularly popular with young adults, minorities, and those who live in cities.

This is the first-ever survey reading from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project that exclusively examines Twitter users. In previous surveys, the Project had asked internet users whether they “used Twitter or another service to share updates about yourself or to see updates about others?”

Save Time, Increase Impact

"Open-source books make up just a sliver of the textbooks being used on college campuses today. But interest is growing.

The Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington, D.C., recently listed the expansion of open-source books as a key way to cut college costs. The Student Public Interest Research Group says open-source materials could save students 80 percent of what they spend on textbooks and is encouraging professors nationwide to sign a pledge declaring their preference for open-source texts. More than 2,600 professors so far have signed."

"The father-and-son team from Brooklyn managed to send their homemade spacecraft up nearly 19 miles, high into the stratosphere, bringing back perhaps the most impressive amateur space footage ever. The duo housed the video camera, iPhone, and GPS equipment in a specially designed insulated casing, along with some hand-warmers and a note from Max requesting its safe return from whomever may find it after making it back to solid ground. All told, father and son spent eight months preparing for their homemade journey into space, in hopes of filming "the blackness beyond our earth.""

"In our resource-limited context, five questions need to be asked – and asked without presupposing too quickly that we know the answers – if we are to realize the full value of this shift towards learning, away from teaching:

* What do students need to be able to do by the end of their course or program?
* What pedagogical and curricular opportunities can we design to help them learn to do it?
* What resources can we consider as we design these learning opportunities?
* What can we do as institutions or educators to bring those resources to bear on student learning?
* How will we know whether we are successful?"