Emerging technology and the way things were

In yet another blog entry on iPad, the folks at Gizmodo did a quick review of the effects on ebooks and the obsolescence of book covers. In particular, the effect of this on the market place seemed well placed related to learning:

"Yes, people who would have purchased a book because they saw three people reading it at Starbucks may not purchase said book in an ebook world. But they might purchase another book, because they saw it on their buddies' Twitter feeds, or because iTunes spat out some kind of automated recommendation for them that's actually grounded in data, beyond their 20-person, Dan-Brown-biased coffee shop sample group. More to the point, the loss of this totally unquantifiable benefit to publishers is probably—and probably massively—offset by the fact that all these secretive ebook enjoyers are now, at all times, just seconds away from tapping into a vast digital bookstore, which delivers books in a matter of seconds." (Source)

Similar arguments are directed to learning, and yes the new technology in the old environment can be problematic...but it's the new technology in the new environment where things get exciting.

Keeping with the theme

The iPad release is imminent (April 3), and I'm still trying to figure out if I want to get one or wait until second generation, however, Gizmodo made me think of some uses that I had not thought of yet. Yes, there is talk about the iPad revolution of magazines, and comic books, and games, and the "intimate" nature of the iPad, but the one that got me:


How cool would it be to be able to carry your music with you, and have it in a format that you could actually use, and help organize as you were playing along. I wish I had this when I was in band.

iPads for All New Students

In a post from ReadWriteWeb, Frederic Lardinois reports that two colleges, Seton Hill University and George Fox University, have announced plans to give all incoming students a choice between a MacBook or an iPad. This may be a premature endorsement of the iPad considering it hasn't been tested enough yet and it is not yet apparent whether the iPad will suceed where Kindle hasn't with the textbook market. It remains to be seen whether textbook publishers will be able to leverage the iPad's interactive capabilities to bring new value to students and educators.

Online graphic organizing tools

The blog Free Technology for Teachers has a recent post illuminating nine freely available online tools that can be used for graphic organization of ideas or mind mapping. These can be useful tools for visual learners and can help students broaden and narrow research topics and see the relationships between different concepts. Among the tools highlighted are Wise Mapping, Slatebox, exploratree, and mindmeister. The library also has Creedo Reference (you must login to access this link from off campus), a database aggregating electronic encyclopedia articles which includes a "Concept Map" feature similarly allowing students to visually see the connections between different research topics.

A peek into the future -- uh, past

A new partnership between Google and Popular Science Magazine has made available the entire 137 year archives of the magazine. Though I'm only a little familiar with the mag, I would imagine there are a number of ways this could be used by instructors. For example: history projects, evolution of technology discussions, changes in writing style over 137 years...and the list could go on. Check it out and relive your great-great-grandfather's youth.

The Debate Over Making Lectures Available Online

In the Chronicle of Higher Education article, "College 2.0: More Professors Could Share Lectures Online. But Should They?", Jeffrey R. Young highlights both sides of the issue many professors are considering: whether to make their lectures available to students (and possibly the public at large) online. The discussion includes increased access to class content for students, copyright concerns, managing the recording process, and facilitating the free flow of ideas.

ProfCast for Windows! Finally!

If you don't already know what ProfCast is, it's basically a little application that allows you to record lectures including PowerPoint slides for creating enhanced podcast media files. ProfCast has been out for the Mac for several years now but recently ProfCast for Windows has been released. It allows you to publish your recording in several different formats and makes creating, recording, and publishing enhanced podcast media files a breeze . Check it out and download the 15 day free trial.

Collaborate Online with Zoho

Zoho is a suite of production and collaboratory web 2.0 applications in the "cloud computing" network.The various apps includes word-processing, spreadsheets, wikis, chat, presentations and much more. The basic services are free to use. Feel free to check out the Zoho website to learn more.

YouTube releases auto-captioning

One of the most difficult problems facing faculty moving into video creation for their classes is captioning those videos for the hearing impaired. Now YouTube offers auto-closed captioning. The closed captioning is done automatically when the video is loaded. Though it is not perfect, it's close, and whatever it gets wrong can be fixed by working with a text file. Just another reason to use YouTube for videos in your classes.

Challenging Perceptions About Distance Education

In a recent column in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Yale University Librarian and San Jose State University and Wayne State University distance learning instructor Todd Gilman discusses the reactions he has received from colleagues who have never taught online classes and debunks some of the myths about distance learning that still seem to perpetuate.