Tag: Technology

Phone It In

  Last year, one of my college-bound nephews proudly told me that he had mastered the fine art of texting his friends while holding his phone underneath his desk while pretending to listen to his teacher during class.  He proclaimed that his teachers had no idea that he and his friends were texting.  Being the

Wikipedia Revisited

Have you looked at Wikipedia lately?  Even if you’re not consciously looking for information on the Wikipedia website, the chances are that you come across with Wikipedia entries as you search anything on Google.  It’s usually in one of the top five search results and whether you like it or not, it’s on our face

Another iPad Story

Few weeks ago, three of us, who teach the Design a Quality Online and Blended Course cohort program, received iPad so we can share with faculty how we can integrate this new tool into their academic life including research, teaching and service.  Jean-Marie already posted her experiences as a new user, so in my blog

Integrating Social Media Tools into your Courses

If you have not read my previous blog titled “The Power of Social Media”, please consider reading it when you have some time to spare. My intention to continue blogging on the use of Social Media and Learning is to draw your attention to the potential of these technologies to transform students’ learning and faculty

Using Technology to Improve Student Learning

Research indicates that technology can be used to improve teaching and learning if it is used in a way consistent with the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.  According to these principles good practice should encourage student and faculty contact, develop cooperation among students, use active learning techniques, ensure prompt feedback to students,

Is 8% too high or too low?

Yesterday was my turn to write a blog post, but I totally blanked out and did not have any ideas what to write about.  So, my first action in a situation like this is to randomly browse the Internet. I have various news sources on my portal page (I use myYahoo to aggregate various RSS

Can new types of social network sites engage student learning?

A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education discussed the emergence of social software sites that, as the article title states, “try to make studying feel like Facebook.” These sites are taking different approaches, but all are basically trying to draw student participation to themselves. And, of course, many of these are for profit

Potentially useless, but…

As an instructional technology specialist, I review a lot of different Web 2.0 tools to see if they are useful for instruction and collaboration.  GoogleDocs, Wiki, Delicious, collaborative mind-mapping tools (like Mindmeister etc.),  Voicethread and Diigo are definitely my favorite tools of trade, depending on what I’d like to use them for.  Students’ favorite, Facebook,

Q: Why is “Facebook” blue?

A: Mark Zuckerberg (friends call him Zuck) 26 year-old founder of Facebook, is red-green color-blind so blue is the “richest” color for him. Therefore, blue is the primary color of Facebook as well as his Palo Alto home (which he found the same way he has found all of his homes, on Craig’s List). If