Use of Web 2.0 in the Classroom

This is an exciting 2 part article posted by Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies demonstrating over 100 ways to incorporate Web 2.0 in learning environments. This could lead to more meaningful interactions outside the classroom between students.

Dropbox

Dropbox is a free cross-platform folder synchronization service that allows users to save files to a secure folder shared among any Mac, Linux, Windows machine or even mobile device. The contents of the folder are also automatically updated and stored securely on the web. This means, rather than using a flash drive to tranport files between different machines (and risk losing it), you can quickly and automatically update information between serval different computers and even access it from the web if need be. There's a lot of potential for this in education and distance learning. It can possibly provide a way to share resources with students or allow students to collaborate in the creation of group projects.

Social Networking and Connecting

A new study from the Pew Charitable Trusts examines the perceived social isolation coming about in our society. Common knowledge infers that increased use of personal technology is creating a rift in the social fabric of our society, isolating us from each other. From the link above: The study shows that "internet use in general and use of social networking services such as Facebook in particular are associated with more diverse social networks." Use of social networks in academic environments and students' percieved connection with classmates and their instructors should be looked at closely, especially in the context of how they might be used to affect retention and success.

Obama's Push for Online Education

In this article I ran into from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Marc Perry reports on a plan that's emerging from the Obama administration to provide colleges with access to "open" online classes for which the government would potentially fund the development. Colleges (and there seems to be a special indication of community colleges in particular) could repackage and add value to these classes by providing the actual online interaction and instruction to the students while still keeping costs affordable. There's also the suggestion that a community college or consortia of community colleges could house the project's development. Also included in the article is a broader discussion of the need for change from the current model of higher education and how online education can prove a better use of an instructor's time and a way to better tailor to the learning needs of students.

Problems with Google Scholar for Scholars

Google collaborated with many academic libraries to make many scholarly material easily searchable. But as Peter Jacso from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa points out in this article, the biggest problem with Google Scholar (and also Google's Book Search) is the poor job Google has been doing with the metadata associated with these materials. When Googling, most people don't care much about metadata, but faulty metadata can provide an inaccurate picture of the value of a resource to researchers. For example, materials are often categorized under incorrect author names or assigned bloated citations counts. All of this can be a factor for ECC students or faculty who are relying on Google Scholar as a research tool. It can mean inaccurate citations or search results that favor less valuable materials. It's good to keep this in mind when encouraging students to think critically about their information sources.