Day 4 of the SI
Delicious proved useful when I couldn't remember the name of a book mentioned yesterday, and it was really easy to look up. Score 1 point for learning new things! Yesterday I was most impressed with the fact that I can get the RSS feeds directly from Journal webpages, thus making it easier (and cheaper) to keep on top of relevant articles. I can use this to keep an eye out for articles relevant to my students, and pass them on where useful.
With all of this technology, most of which I want to use RIGHT NOW, I'll have to give careful thought to affordance (action potential) and context. To enhance the student experience, I want tools that make learning more interesting, or easier, but that will work with their existing tools and skills. I know that students experience trepidation when asked to do something entirely new, so I may need to assess these tools from multiple viewpoints. Right now, I think group blogs may meet my goals - they're easy to use, allow multiple authors, facilitate feedback, and are hosted free on multiple sites.
I'm thinking of creating an assignment where my students will create blogs (a group of students work together on one blog), and use them to convey information about a particular research topic. They would use the internet to hunt down information on a topic, and then synthesize that information and link to key resources via their blog. Other students could comment and provide feedback.
Today we discussed Second Life, which looks interesting, but doesn't immediately grab me with the same interest that I have for some other tools.
We had an interesting discussion about the role of the University Institution with technology change. With content increasingly available online, what role will the University have? Why would students come to classes? I think there is a social interaction that students appreciate that (for the most part) we can't duplicate online yet. Certainly providing credentials will continue to be a role, but many students I've spoken with enjoy the face to face interaction with peers and faculty. I have several students that dropped an online version of a geography class, and are currently taking my course to get that interaction and discussion.
With all of this technology, most of which I want to use RIGHT NOW, I'll have to give careful thought to affordance (action potential) and context. To enhance the student experience, I want tools that make learning more interesting, or easier, but that will work with their existing tools and skills. I know that students experience trepidation when asked to do something entirely new, so I may need to assess these tools from multiple viewpoints. Right now, I think group blogs may meet my goals - they're easy to use, allow multiple authors, facilitate feedback, and are hosted free on multiple sites.
I'm thinking of creating an assignment where my students will create blogs (a group of students work together on one blog), and use them to convey information about a particular research topic. They would use the internet to hunt down information on a topic, and then synthesize that information and link to key resources via their blog. Other students could comment and provide feedback.
Today we discussed Second Life, which looks interesting, but doesn't immediately grab me with the same interest that I have for some other tools.
We had an interesting discussion about the role of the University Institution with technology change. With content increasingly available online, what role will the University have? Why would students come to classes? I think there is a social interaction that students appreciate that (for the most part) we can't duplicate online yet. Certainly providing credentials will continue to be a role, but many students I've spoken with enjoy the face to face interaction with peers and faculty. I have several students that dropped an online version of a geography class, and are currently taking my course to get that interaction and discussion.
posted by Lisa at
3:44 p.m.
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