muraPOI: December 8, 2011

• Is there a better alternative to the 5-star rating system?: Great discusison about rating systems in general. Very thoughtful and useful responses. Rating systems are an important opportunity to connect with users.

  (I can’t locate the source. Could be +O’Reilly Radar or something else…)

• Universities without borders: do we need campuses in the age of Open CourseWare?: Phillip Long and Roly Sussex talk about the “opening of the academy” with OpenCourseware, notions of “individual learning” and the experiments with the AI/Database courses at Stanford. They conclude with:

  We [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][could] “start to contemplate real, high-quality open learning without traditional university infrastructure – the classroom and laboratory, the tutorial, the library, the cloister.

  If this works, it raises simple, but devastating, questions. In a world of OCW and now the emergence of “free range” courses, what is the role of the traditional university and what is the value of a physical campus? Are we prepared for the consequences of “open”?”

  (Google Alert, “OpenCourseWare”, October 27, 2011)

• Teachers Swap Recipes: Educators use web sites and social networks to share lesson plans: This Education Next article by Bill Tucker has some great observations for those building collections of lesson plans–or put another way, those trying to collect and distribute the “context” of use. The article talks about the sharing that that teachers have been doing for ages now, that of sharing lesson plans. What works well in schools and local communities might seem to be an obvious choice to bring online. The technology is easy. Building the user base, as always is more challenging. The kicker–is that what makes sharing lesson plans work in person are the real communities.

  But context matters. Teachers want to know whether something will work with their instructional style, in their classroom, and for their kids. Trust matters, too. While the sites offer ratings by users and rankings of the most popular items, these may not identify the highest-quality offerings. So how do novice teachers, who lack experience developing lessons and stand to benefit the most, know that a lesson plan will actually be effective? The answer may not lie in cyberspace, but in real communities.

  (Education Next, Summer 2011, Vol. 11, No. 3)

• Booting Down: Elizabeth Murphy writes about a study by Alison Head and Michael Eisenberg. The authors studied students studying for finals in libraries. They found that students use libraries to “get away from the hectic world around them”, and that “students use technology to help them study and to communicate with others” and by implication not to goof off or be always connected.

  Read the study: Head, A. & Eisenberg, M. (2011). How College Students Manage Technology While in the Library during Crunch Time. Project Information Literacy Research Report: “Balancing Act”. Retrieved from Project Information Literacy Web Site on December 7, 2011: http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_Fall2011_TechStudy_FullReport1.1.pdf

  (Likely +Esther Wojcicki reference to Inside Higher Ed, October 14, 2011)

• Teachers of the Year: Kick Open Your Classroom Doors: The post summarizes a “discussion about the public perception of the teaching profession”. Two items stood out for me.

  • “Teach. …We must bring our teaching skills to our work with the community. In other words, on top of our other responsibilities as teachers, we must become public engagement experts, advocating for our schools, students, and profession. Rather than talking “at” the public, we must actively involve community members in honest discussions, explore the evidence with them, and let them help shape the educational landscape as partners.”
  • “Open our classroom doors. Web 2.0 tools equip us to share evidence of excellent teaching with community members. Through social media sites, blogs, and class websites, we can let the public know exactly what is happening behind our classroom doors. Classroom video feeds or student-produced documentaries can bring the magic of learning alive. And by responding to comments and messages, we can enhance the transparency of our work and begin authentic discussions.”

  (+Esther Wojcicki, ~October 18, 2011)

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