Archive

01.09.05

BLOGGING
--Blogs Illustrated
Blogs Illustrated is the first... blog ring specifically for blogs written/run by artists, illustrators and amateurs, who illustrate their blogs/lives with their own work, whether that work be created in the real world or the virtual, using their blog not just as a gallery for their work, but using their work to do the blogging.
Blogs Illustrated

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BOOKS
--Blink
Read an excerpt from Malcom Gladwell's new book describing the part of the brain that runs our rapid decision-making system:
Imagine that I asked you to a play a very simple gambling game. In front of you, are four decks of cards--two red and two blue. Each card in those four decks either wins you a sum of money or costs you some money, and your job is to turn over cards from any of the decks, one at a time, in such a way that maximizes your winnings. What you don't know at the beginning, however, is that the red decks are a minefield. The rewards are high, but when you lose on red, you lose a lot. You can really only win by taking cards from the blue decks, which offer a nice, steady diet of $50 and $100 payoffs. The question is: how long will it take you to figure this out?
A group of scientists at the University of Iowa did this experiment a few years ago, and what they found is that after we've turned over about fifty cards, most of us start to develop a hunch about what's going on. We don't know why we prefer the blue decks. But we're pretty sure, at that point, that they are a better bet. After turning over about eighty cards, most of us have figured the game out, and can explain exactly why the first two decks are such a bad idea. This much is straightforward. We have some experiences. We think them through. We develop a theory, and then finally we put two and two together. That's the way learning works. But the Iowa scientists did something else, and this is where the strange part of the experiment begins. They hooked each gambler up to a polygraph--a lie detector machine--that measured the activity of the sweat glands that all of us have below the skin in the palms of our hands. Most sweat glands respond to temperature. But those in our palms open up in response to stress--which is why we get clammy hands when we are nervous. What the Iowa scientists found is that gamblers started generating stress responses to red decks by the tenth card, forty cards before they were able to say that they had a hunch about what was wrong with those two decks. More importantly, right around the time their palms started sweating, their behavior began to change as well. They started favoring the good decks, and taking fewer and fewer cards from A and B. In other words, the gamblers figured the game out before they figured the game out: they began making the necessary adjustments long before they were consciously aware of what adjustments they were supposed to be making.
The Iowa study is just an experiment, of course, a simple card game involving a handful of subjects and a polygraph machine. But it's a very powerful illustration of the way our minds work. Here is a situation where the stakes were high, where things were moving quickly, and where the participants had to make sense of a lot of new and confusing information in a very short time--and what does the Iowa experiment tell us? That in those moments our brain uses two very different strategies to make sense of the situation. The first is the one we're most familiar with. It's the conscious strategy. We think about what we've learned, and eventually come up with an answer. This strategy is logical and definitive. But it takes us eighty cards to get there. It's slow. It needs a lot of information. There's a second strategy, though. It operates a lot more quickly. It starts to kick in after ten cards, and it's really smart because it picks up the problem with the red decks almost immediately. It has the drawback, however, that it operates--at least at first--entirely below the surface of consciousness. It sends its messages through weirdly indirect channels, like the sweat glands on the palms of our hands. It's a system in which our brain reaches conclusions without immediately telling us that it's reaching conclusions.
BLINK

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GAMING
--Prognosticate
This is an online word game using current events.
Prognosticate


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PDAs
--Creative Use of PDAs at Colorado State University
Personal digital assistants, or PDAs, are not just used to keep track of appointments, addresses and phone numbers at Colorado State University. The College of Natural Resources has come up with a new and creative way to use PDAs by incorporating them into students' field work at Pingree Park, the university's mountain campus.
PDAs for Field Work

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CONFERENCES / WORKSHOPS
-- Workshop on The Higher Learning Commission’s New Criteria and Assessment within the Criteria
DATE: January 31, 2005
LOCATION: Holiday Inn Select in Bloomington, MN. To contact the hotel, call (952) 854-9000.
Bring a campus group to take part in this highly interactive workshop led by the Higher Learning Commission’s Assistant Director for Accreditation Services, Dr. Karen Solomon. Sessions will explore what’s been learned from campuses using the new criteria, including an overview of self-studies and recent team visits, and assessment of student learning within the Criteria. For further details contact Cheryl Hilinski at Cheryl Hilinski
Participants receive discounted room rate, when booking by January 12, 2005.
For more information:
Conference
--Assessment: Informing Teaching, Learning, & Institutional Change
DATE: February 18 – 19, 2005
Meaningful assessment is crucial to measuring and improving learning outcomes and achieving accreditation objectives. This conference explores assessment as a strategic tool for faculty, administrators, and student development staff to drive positive change throughout the institution. See how assessment can be an organizing force for positive change in the classroom and across your institution. Consider strategies for overcoming resistance and "closing the loop." Experience assessment best practices for yourself within the conference structure.
For more information:
Assessment Conference
--Online Workshop: Teaching at a Distance
The next offering of the online workshop - "Teaching At A Distance: fromConcept To Practice" - will begin on January 16, 2005. There are currently 9 participant "seats" available for the workshop.The online workshop is five weeks in duration (January 16 - February 19,2005), has a major foundational theme each week and examines key conceptsand ideas to support the effective use of distance education especially from the learner's perspective.Week 1 Theme ~ The Framework of Distance EducationWeek 2 Theme ~ The Learner in Distance EducationWeek 3 Theme ~ Distance Education Instructional StrategiesWeek 4 Theme ~ Implementing Distance EducationWeek 5 Theme ~ Evaluating Distance EducationFor complete information about "Teaching At A Distance: From Concept to Practice" and an online Registration Form, click on link:Learning Associates


KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT / LIBRARIES
--Digital Preservation Management Tutorial
Read the introduction to this tutorial:
Although technology is a key element in digital preservation, we believe it isn't the greatest inhibitor - the lack of organizational will and way is. Despite the increasing evidence documenting the fragility and ubiquity of digital content, cultural repositories have been slow to respond to the need to safeguard digital heritage materials.
This tutorial and the Cornell's workshop…{was developed} to address this notable lack of institutional response. Using the entwined themes of the requisite organizational and technological infrastructure, we will address the establishment of a viable digital preservation program. At the core of the tutorial and workshop is an integrated model that combines the organizational context and technological implementation.
Digital Preservation Management
I acquired this resource from Librarians Index to the Internet, 16 December 2004.
--The New ISBN
The New ISBN
I acquired this resource from Librarians Index to the Internet, 16 December 2004.
--Bar Graphs
Bar graphs or bar charts are ubiquitous visual representations, but they are not always correctly used and many times we don’t get the most out of them. This site reviews their essence, properties and utilization.
BarChart

MULTIMEDIA
--Pedagogical Uses and Applications of Online Video
This is a flash presentation on integrating video into online learning platforms.
Pedagogical Uses/Applications of Online Video
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BLOG GRAB BAG
--Technology and Long-Distance Athletes and Medicine
Professional athletes, including cyclists and distance runners, soon will have a powerful new tool to predict energy expenditure and performance during a race, thanks to a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin and Saris Cycling Group of Madison. The technology also has potential medical applications, including helping to treat obese children and adults and cardiac patients.
Technology and Long-Distance Athletes

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Cell Phones as Fashion
Nokia just came out with a Hello Kitty cell phone. I want one!
Cell Phones as Fashion

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--World's Highest Road Bridge
The Millau bridge over the River Tarn in the Massif Central mountains is more than 300m (984ft) high -- taller even than the country's Eiffel Tower.
British architect Norman Foster
World's Tallest Bridge

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Ten byTen
10x10™ ('ten by ten') is an interactive exploration of the words and pictures that define the time. The result is an often moving, sometimes shocking, occasionally frivolous, but always fitting snapshot of our world. Every hour, 10x10 collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time. Over the course of days, months, and years, 10x10 leaves a trail of these hourly statements which, stitched together side by side, form a continuous patchwork tapestry of human life.
10x10 is ever-changing, ever-growing, quietly observing the ways in which we live. It records our wars and crises, our triumphs and tragedies, our mistakes and milestones. When we make history, or at least the headlines, 10x10 takes note and remembers.
Each hour is presented as a picture postcard window, composed of 100 different frames, each of which holds the image of a single moment in time. Clicking on a single frame allows us to peer a bit deeper into the story that lies behind the image. In this way, we can dart in and out of the news, understanding both the individual stories and the ways in which they relate to each other.
10x10 runs with no human intervention, autonomously observing what a handful of leading international news sources are saying and showing. 10x10 makes no comment on news media bias, or lack thereof. It has no politics, nor any secret agenda; it simply shows what it finds.
With no human editors and no regulation, 10x10 is open and free, raw and fresh, and consequently a unique way of following world events. In 10x10, we respond instinctively to patterns in the grid, visual indicators of relevance. When we see a frequently repeated image, we know it’s important. When we see a picture of a movie star next to a picture of dead bodies, we understand the extremes that exist in our world. Scanning a grid of pictures can be more intuitive than reading headlines, for it lets the news come to life, and everything feels a bit less distant, a bit closer to heart, and maybe, if we're lucky, gives us pause to think
TenbyTen

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--Pale Male
Follow the adventures of "Pale Male," a daring red-tailed hawk who manages to thrive in the urban world of New York City.
PBS Nature Web site
Pale Male

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TOOLS
--Mouserobics
How to use a computer mouse like an expert.
Mouserobics
I-Podder.org
iPodder is small program that runs on your computer. It's only purpose is to download audio files, usually mp3's, directly to your mp3 device. Currently iPod is supported on both Windows and Mac.
iPodder
--Podcastalley
Find hundreds of podcasts (subscription-based Web audio broadcasts, often homegrown), podcasting software (much of it free), explanations of podcasting, how-tos for would-be broadcasters, popular podcasts, and much more. Maintained by a podcasting enthusiast.
Podcastalley

PEDAGOGY
--Online Teaching as a Catalyst for Classroom Teaching
Read an excerpt from this article:
Why should we feel that developing and teaching an online course would have an impact on regular class instruction? What evidence exists to suggest a sustained opportunity for pedagogical reflection is allowed through this experience? One piece of evidence - previous surveys indicate that faculty spend a great deal of time and effort on the development and teaching of online courses. In the most recent survey, for example, the most common response to the question - “How much time did you spend developing your online course?” was “More than 120 hours.” We suspected that this level of effort might offer opportunities for reflection that would have a positive impact on classroom-based instruction.
It should be pointed out that this development time is not spent alone. All faculty who participate in the SUNY Learning Network agree to participate in rigorous preparatory training, and receive ongoing support during the entire time they teach their courses, both from the trainers, multimedia instructional designers, and a faculty HelpDesk. Training begins with participation in an online all-faculty conference that mirrors the environment in which faculty will eventually instruct. Through participation in this online conference new faculty come together to experience firsthand what they and their students will do in this new learning environment. The all-faculty conference uses the same technology and interface that the new instructors will use, and provides opportunities to discuss a variety of common concerns, observe live courses, and “try out” many of the features and functions they will use in their own online courses, all from the perspective of the student.
Through this experience and through twenty hours of face-to-face training, faculty explore the idea that online instruction does not simply entail mimicking what happens in the classroom, but rather, requires a transformation: a re-conceptualization of their course and learning objectives given the options and constraints of the new learning environment. Common issues that arise include how to best create a sense of class community: an environment in which students get to know the instructor, each other, and have ample opportunities for quality interaction and feedback. In order to fully exploit the unique opportunities of online instruction faculty are encouraged to reflect on their instructional goals and then to investigate, with the help on an multimedia instructional designer (MID), how best to translate and achieve those goal online. The faculty HelpDesk provides continuous support to answer technical questions and make the technology as invisible as possible.
Online Teaching as a Catalyst

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I acquired this resource from E-Literate, 5 December 2004.
--Instructional Design Models
NEAT! Take a look.
Instructional Design Models

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--People Becoming Portals
When millions of people carry Internet connections in their pockets, the focus of communications shifts from places to individuals - with significant implications for the way we think of ourselves and the shape of our social institutions. How will education evolve?
People Becoming Portals

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--E-Portfolios
This is an article by George Siemens, elearnspace, 16 December 2004.
Electronic portfolios (also referred to as eportfolios or webfolios) are gaining recognition as a valuable tool for learners, instructors, and academic organizations. Bold proclamations laud webfolios as “higher education’s new “got to have it” tool – the show-and-tell platform of the millennium” (Cohen and Hibbitts, 2004), and as a tool that “may have the most significant effect on education since the introduction of formal schooling” (Love, McKean, and Gathercoal, 2004). Laying aside new-technology hype and enthusiasm, eportfolios can best be viewed as a reactionary response to fundamental shifts in learning, teaching, technology, and learner needs in a climate where learning is no longer perceived as confined to formal education.
Read the article:
E-Portfolios

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Notes
Cohn, E. R., Hibbitts, B. J., (2004). Beyond the Electronic Portfolio: A Lifetime Personal Web Space. Retrieved on December 10, 2004 from Beyond the Electronic Portfolio
Love, D., McKean, G., Gathercoal P., (2004) Portfolios to Webfolios and Beyond: Levels of Maturation. Retrieved on December 10, 2004 from Portfolios to Webfolios
--Experience-Enabling Design: An Approach to E-Learning
This useful article by L. Ravi Krishnan (ravikl-at-trina.biz), Trina Systems, India and Venkatesh Rajamanickam (venkat-at-sp.edu.sg), Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore, focuses on layout thinking and experience design. I am incorporating a number of their ideas in my spring classes.
Experience-Enabling Design
Recommended.

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WIKIS
--Where the Wiki Things Are
Talk about wikis.
Where the Wiki Things Are

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E-PORTFOLIOS
--Beyond the Electronic Portfolio: A Lifetime Personal Web Space
Can E-portfolios be more than high-tech resumes?
The authors of this article propose that, "every citizen, at birth, will be granted a cradle-to-grave, lifetime personal Web space that will enable connections among personal, educational, social, and business systems."
The article suggests some possible attributes of such a space.
Beyond the Electronic Portfolio

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STUDENTS
--What Students Think About Us
This site's catch-phrase is "Where students do the grading."
Inver Hills has a grade roster on this site! Look yourself up, if you dare!
Rate My Professors

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Until next time.
Blog editor

Faculty Development News This Week:

The Hare & Billet Pub, Blackheath, England.

Ann Schroder and her husband, Nick Marcucci, recently travelled to England, so I begged her to share a photo for the blog. Above you see the Hare & Billet Pub, Blackheath, England.

Ann also kindly provided copy to go along with the photo. Read on:

The Hare & Billet Pub is a small, cozy establishment that has been operating since the 1800's. This is a great place to sit over a brew with the newspaper or have the midday Sunday roast dinner and watch the kite flying on the heath. There's also a pub quiz on Sunday evenings.

If all this atmosphere is not enough, the Hare & Billet Pub is also haunted.

Legend has it that, the ghost of a young woman haunts the pub. Why? Apparently, she hung herself after a tragic love affair, and, after all this time, she still has issues.

This place has everything!

Thanks Ann and Nick.

GRANTS

--Grants for Teaching and Learning Resources and Curriculum Development

Grants for Teaching and Learning Resources and Curriculum Development support projects to improve specific areas of humanities education and are intended to serve as national models of excellence. They must draw upon scholarship in the humanities and use scholars and teachers as advisers. NEH is especially interested in projects that offer solutions to problems frequently encountered by teachers

This announcement is a modification to a previous grants notice.

For more information:

Grants

HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE 21st-CENTURY

--Anytime, Anyplace and the Community College: Ten Emerging Insights

Read the abstract for this article:

Community colleges are a vital part of the larger higher education community in the United States and increasingly around the world. The more than 1,100 U.S. community colleges—not to mention the hundreds of like institutions internationally—have evolved into dynamic, comprehensive institutions that are often known for their resourcefulness in using any available tool or technique to improve and expand learning. From the early days of correspondence courses to the “colleges without walls” movement of the 1970s and 1980s, community college educators have demonstrated a commitment to extending the reach of education in their continuing efforts to make a difference for students and communities.

In today’s higher education world, asynchronous learning is the power tool. Moreover, the associated techniques for using asynchronous learning to support in-class and online instruction are bringing learning to life in new and exciting ways. This edition of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks examines the role of these anytime, anyplace tools with a special focus on the characteristics of the community college movement—particularly the access, affordability, and outreach elements. Readers are treated to explorations of demographic trends, technological tools, and change-management strategies from well known researchers and practitioners. The conversation often ranges beyond community college, and that is with purpose. Community colleges are part of the broader family of education as well as a piece of the social and political fabric of the communities that they serve and thus deserve to be explored in this more complete context.

Read the article:

Anytime, Anyplace...Insights

This is a 6-page PDF file.

--An Overview of Higher Education in the United States: Diversity, Access, and the Role of the Marketplace

This article describes the major characteristics of American higher education, noting its essential philosophical underpinnings as well as important issues that currently challenge it. An Overview of Higher Education in the United States provides snapshots of how most colleges and universities are governed and financed, their students and faculty, the nature of the curriculum and student life, and the effects of the marketplace on colleges and universities.

This publication originally appeared as a chapter in J. Forest and P. Altbach (Eds.), The International Handbook of Higher Education (two volumes), to be published by Springer (expected publication date October 2005).

An Overview of Higher Education in the United States

This is a 25-page PDF file.

--UC/21: Defining the New Urban Research University

UC21 is the University of Cincinnati's strategic plan for charting its academic course for the 21st century. Its preparation involved months of discussion and consultation at a scope never before seen on campus.

A wide range of university stakeholders -- students, full- and part-time faculty, staff, emeriti, alumni, corporate partners, donors, civic and social service leaders, and neighbors -- were invited to participate.

More than 240 people, including individuals from the community at large, worked together in a series of Town Hall meetings to discuss and draft the university's vision for its future. Additional insight came from over 2,400 people who participated in more than 90 input sessions hosted by UC colleges and units.

This report is interesting for its perspective on one institution's roadmap for the 21st-century.

Download the report for free. This is a 143-page PDF file.

Defining the New Urban Research University

FACULTY PUBLISHING

--Richard Nelson, History Department IHCC

Richard Nelson has recently published an article in The Swedish-American Historical Quarterly: "Family Nationalism in Black and White: Slaves, Swedes, and the Promise of Reconstruction." The Swedish-American Historical Quarterly 55 October 2004):218-42.

And do you know....Richard is the author of Aesthetic Frontiers: The Machiavellian Tradition and the Southern Imagination and A Culture of Confidence: Politics, Performance and the Idea of America. Currently, he is writing a monograph on the role of nationalism in historical thought.

LIBRARIES / KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

--The Weariness of the Flesh: Reflections on the Life of the Mind in an Era of Abundance"

Read the abstract for this article on knowledge management:

The invention of the printing press reduced higher education’s learning-resource scarcity. Access to learning increased, and this democratization of education indirectly contributed to the idea of political democracy in the western world. As part of these political changes, equilibrium was sought between the supply of expertise needed to promote prosperity and the demand for such expertise. This equilibrium has been elusive as the world economy shifts to a reliance on intellectual capital. To complicate matters, we now live in a world of staggering information abundance. How do we mange such boundless information? One answer may lie in viewing the social character of information (how information is used) as fundamental in setting information management agendas. This article presents a holistic approach to information management as one strategy to create effective management of information that starts with the individual and ends with collective knowledge and wisdom.

Read the article:

The Weariness of the Flesh

This is a 10-page PDF document.

--Digitaizationblog

digitizationblog

digitizationblog focuses on digitization and related activities in libraries, archives, and museums, and is a source of news relevent to people who manage and implement digitization projects. Postings about new technologies and tools (particularly software), developments in metadata, and government or consortial initiaves are welcome, as are pointers to new and innovative collections of digitized and born-digital material. Even though there are several excellent sources of digitization news such as the DigiCULT Newsletter and RLG DigiNews (and this blog certainly isn’t intended to replace them), there is a lack of space on the web where implementors can share ideas and useful pointers. digitizationblog is intended to fill part of this gap.

Visit digitizationblog:

digitizationblog.

I acquired this resource from Catalogablog, 6 December 2004.

--Center for History and New Media

Since 1994, the Center for History and New Media has used digital media and computer technology to democratize history—to incorporate multiple voices, reach diverse audiences, and encourage popular participation in presenting and preserving the past. They sponsor more than a dozen digital history projects and offer free tools and resources for historians.

This site offers several features I plan to implement in my classes. One is an online Survey Builder, which allows you to create and edit surveys. I plan on using it with case study research. The second is Poll Builder, which creates polls that you can embed in your Web pages. You can select the background color for the poll and have up to 5 possible responses.

All of this is free, too! Registration required.

Center for History and New Media

PEDAGOGY

--Book: Providing Culturally Relevant Adult Education: A Challenge for the Twenty-First Century

I just acquired Providing Culturally Relevant Adult Education, an imprint of Jossey-Bass Publishers (1999. It looks like an interesting read:

Chapters:

"Culture as Context for Adult Education: The Need for Culturally Relevant Adult Education"

"Adult Learning: Moving Toward More Inclusive Thories and Practices"

"Giving Voice: Inclusion of African American Students' Polyrhythmic Realities in Adult Basic Education"

"The Quest for Visibility in Adult Education: The Hispanic Experience"

"Navajo Language and Culture in Adult Education"

"Creating a Culturally Relevant Dialogue for African American Adult Educators"

"Culturally Relevant Adult Education: Key Themes and Common Purposes"

TOOLS

--NOID or Batch Identifier Infrastructure

John A. Kunze from the California Digital Library has released noid (nice opague identifer generator commands), a Perl utility for creating persistent, globally unique names for documents, databases, images, vocabulary terms, etc. Documentation, including a tutorial,

NOID

This is a 17-page PDF file.

This resource acquired from Digitalizationblog 21 November 2004.

--SingingFish

SingingFish touts itself as a new multimedia search engine.

Try it out:

Singing Fish

--Feedspeaker

Feedspeaker translates texts RSS Feeds into MP3 files.

This is so neat. I have been playing around with avatars (talking computer simulations)this term, so this text-to-speech synthesis utility caught my interest.

Feedspeaker is free, however, you might need to download a couple extra bits, if you don't have them ( Microsoft .NET Redistributable 1.1 and Microsoft Speech API {SAPI} 5.0). There is also a sample download of the Slashdot feed MP3'd.

Feedspeaker

Source acquired from ResearchBuzz12 December 2004.

--Google Suggest

What is Google Suggest? Read the promotional literature:

As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you're typing and offers suggestions in real time. This is similar to Google's "Did you mean?" feature that offers alternative spellings for your query after you search, except that it works in real time. For example, if you type "bass," Google Suggest might offer a list of refinements that include "bass fishing" or "bass guitar." Similarly, if you type in only part of a word, like "progr," Google Suggest might offer you refinements like "programming," "programming languages," "progesterone," or "progressive." You can choose one by scrolling up or down the list with the arrow keys or mouse.

Google Suggest

In Beta.

--Blogdigger

What is Blogdigger?

Read the literature:

Blogdigger a search engine for blogs. Blogdigger uses state of the art syndication technologies, such as RSS and Atom, to index blog content and make it available for search. Blogdigger also makes all search results available in RSS or Atom, so users can subscribe to keyword searches and automatically be notified, via the News Aggregator of their choice, of new content pertaining to their interests. Blogdigger searches thousands of RSS and Atom feeds, and is built-in to many popular News Aggregators, such as FeedDemon and NetNewsWire.

Blogdigger

Resource acquired: ResearchBuzz 12 December 2004.

--Neighborsearch

NeighborSearch will search for your keyword only in those pages which are linked from the URL you specify. So, you could enter the wordvisit, for example, and the URL http://www.inverhills.edu/, and get a list of pages relevant to visiting Inver Hills Community College. Response time is somewhat slow.

Clever!

Neighborsearch

JOURNALS

--New Journal: Foucault Studies

Foucault Studies is a new electronic, refereed, international journal. The editors invite submissions and cover art for Issue Number 2, which will appear in May
2005.

Even if you are not one of Foucault's disciples, he is always interesting to read, and you can see how his theoretical frameworks are being applied by scholars today.

The first, inaugural issue is curerently online.

Foucault Studies, Issue 1

Especially interesting, in my view, is "Defending Society From the Abnormal: The Archaeology of Bio-Power" a review essay of Foucault's lectures "Society Must be Defended"(1975-76) and "Abnormal"(1974-75) by Brad Elliott Stone, Loyola Marymount University.

NOTES
Michel Foucault, “Society Must Be Defended”: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975‐1976, trans. David Macey, English series ed. Arnold I. Davidson (New York: Picador,
2003).

Michel Foucault, Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974‐1975, trans. Graham Burchell, English series ed. Arnold I. Davidson (New York: Picador, 2003).

--New Journal: Dislocate

What is Dislocate?

Read on:

Dislocate was founded as a new media journal of the arts in 2001 by students in the MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota. In the spring of 2003, a group of new students got together to brainstorm ways they could develop a high-quality print journal on campus. They spoke with faculty, staff, and students past and present. The former editors of Dislocate were interested in handing their journal off to new energy. In the fall of 2004, the newly reinvigorated Dislocate completed its first web issue. The first print issue of Dislocate is due out in spring 2005. Dislocate is committed to publishing high-quality work in many different styles and forms. We publish both established and emerging writers in each of the three genres — fiction, nonfiction, and poetry — in which University of Minnesota students specialize. Each issue publishes an interview with a featured writer who has recently visited our campus, alongside a selection of his or her work.

Take a look:

Dislocate

--Newly Discovered Journal: Rizomes

Read the manifesto for this journal:

We at Rhizomes oppose the idea that knowledge must grow in a tree structure from previously accepted ideas. New thinking need not follow established patterns.

Intrigued? Then visit:


Rhizomes

All journal references courtesy of CultureCat, 12 December 2004. Thanks, Clancy!

STUDENTS

--Students with Disabilities in Distance Education: Characteristics, Course Enrollment and Completion, and Support Services

Read the abstract for this article:

This study describes the characteristics, enrollment, and completion rates of studentswith disabilities and the support services they received over a three-year period. Between 1998 and 2001 a total of 604 students with disabilities enrolled in undergraduate courses at Athabasca University, which represents 1.5% of the student population. More than half (52%) had a physical disability, 20% had a learning disability, 20% had a psychological disability, 4% had some form of visual impairment, and 3% had a hearing impairment. Of these students 56.6% completed one or more of the courses in which they were enrolled. Their overall course
completion rate (including early withdrawals) was 45.9%, somewhat lower than that of the general university population. Most students received a variety of types of assistance and accommodation through the Office for Access for Students with Disabilities. Only 7% of students with disabilities received no support services. Students who received more types of support services tended to have somewhat more success in terms of course completions, and certain types of disabilities appeared to be more amendable to certain types of assistance.

Read the article:

Students with Disabilities in Distance Education

This is a 19-page PDF file.

--Improving Lives: State and Federal Programs for Low-Income Adults

This project report address the issue of academic success for low-income adults.

Goals of Project:

To make the case to institutional leaders and policy makers that low-income adults are a vital part of the college student population, who possess unique characteristics, face significant challenges, and require greater attention and assistance than traditional students.

To identify proven policies and programs that help low-income adults meet their educational goals, as well as spotlight existing institutional and public policy barriers that impede the academic progress of these individuals.

To prompt action among institutional and policy leaders to improve the academic success of low-income adults.

Download a free PDF of the report, and sign up for e-mail notification when future project reports are released.

Improving Lives

This is a 48-page PDF file.

--MentorNet

MentorNet is the award-winning nonprofit e-mentoring network that addresses the retention and success of those in engineering, science and mathematics, particularly but not exclusively women. Founded in 1997, MentorNet provides highly motivated proteges from many of the world's top colleges and universities with positive, one-on-one, email-based mentoring relationships with mentors from industry and academia. In addition, the MentorNet Community provides opportunities to connect with others from around the world who are interested in diversifying engineering and science

MentorNet

BLOG GRAB BAG

--The Illustrative Art of David Remfry

David Remfry is a talented watercolor artist who recently collaborated with fashion designer Stella McCartney.

Stella McCartney

The Illustrative Art of David Remfry

I acquired this resource from the ever-eclectic BoingBoing, 15 December 2004.

--The Empire that was Russia: Photographs of Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii

The photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) offer a vivid portrait of a lost world--the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming revolution. His subjects ranged from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia, to the railroads and factories of an emerging industrial power, to the daily life and work of Russia's diverse population.

The photo above is the Church of Saint Dimitri, built in the 1190s in the town of Vladimir, east of Moscow in central European Russia. Note the verticality common to early Russian church architecture.

The Empire that Was Russia

Ruminators' Ilk will resume 9 January 2005. Have a restful holiday season

Blog editor

---

Image Credits
--Christmas Tree," Image credit: 320 x 432 pixels - 32kstencilwithstyle.com/ Christmas%20tree.jpg
--"Church of St. Dimitri," http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/architecture.html
--"Cover for Improving Lives http://www.acenet.edu/
--"Cover for Providing Culturally Relevant Adult Education" http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787911674.html
--"Defining the New Urban Research University," http://www.uc.edu/uc21/
--"Dislocate," http://english.cla.umn.edu/creativewriting/dislocate/index.html
--"Foucault Studies" http://www.qut.edu.au/edu/cpol/foucst/index1.html
--"Hare & Billet Pub, Blackheath, England," Ann Schroder
--"Lady in White," 306 x 427 pixels - 7k
www.loadsofodes.co.uk/ html/lady_in_white_sati...
--"Rizomes Logo," http://www.rhizomes.net/issue9/issue9.htm
--"Stella McCartney." http://www.webwombat.com.au/lifestyle/fashion_beauty/images/mccartney1.JPG
--"Untitled," David Remfry, 2001/ Dancers Series/ Watercolor on paper 40'' x
100'' / 102 x 254cm / Diptych http://www.davidremfry.com/

Faculty Development News This Week:

This is the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, New York City, December 2005.

CONFERENCES

--Innovations in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at the Liberal Arts Colleges

Hosted by St. Olaf College and Carleton College,Northfield, Minnesota.

April 1-3, 2005.

Read the conference announcement:

We invite you to join us for a conference that will bring together faculty members from liberal arts colleges to share innovations in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The liberal arts colleges are widely recognized for excellence in teaching and learning. Yet, the specific instructional practices that contribute to such excellence are not frequently shared publicly, nor are they often well documented.

We are particularly interested in soliciting proposals for papers and poster presentations that demonstrate a scholarship of teaching and learning in the liberal arts context. Proposals should connect a particular innovation to the existing literature on teaching and learning, and we encourage those proposals that provide an assessment of the outcomes of the innovation for student learning.

The Early Bird registration deadline is January 14. We look forward to seeing you in Northfield in April.

--2005 Great Plains Alliance for Computers and Writing Conference on April 15-16, 2005

The 2005 Great Plains Alliance for Computers and Writing Conference will be held April 15-16, 2005 and will be hosted by the English Department of Minnesota State University, Mankato. This conference is open to anyone interested in the teaching and learning of writing with computers. For more information on the conference, please visit the Web site: Computers and Writing Conference.

Registration information

--Leadership with Spirit: How Colleges Prepare Students to Lead with Moral Purpose and Commitment

February 3-5, 2005, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida.

The 2005 Institute on College Student Values is a national conference that focuses on research and educational strategies for promoting moral and civic responsibility in college students.

Leadership with Spirit

Download the brochure: Conference Brochure (This is a 5-page PDF file.)

DIVERSITY

--Shinto Web Site

Read an excerpt from this site's Statement of Purpose:

No one can claim to be acquainted with Japan without understanding Shinto, Japan's indigenous religion. The two ideograms which characterize Shinto are 'shin' or 'kami' divinity and 'to' (way), the path to divinity. The Shinto faith appeared at the dawn of Japanese history emanating from the mythical Sun goddess Amaterasu Ohkami. Shinto embarked as a faith of the Japanese imperial religious system but subsequently interacted with other religions, Buddhism and Confucianism, brought to Japan from neighboring Asian countries.

As the Kodansha Encyclopedia describes it: Shinto can be regarded as a two-sided phenomenon. On the one hand it is a loosely structured set of practices, creeds and attitudes rooted in local communities, and on the other it is a strictly defined and organized religion at the level of the imperial line and the state. These two basic aspects, which are not entirely separate, reflect fundamental natures of the Japanese national character as it is expressed in sociological structures and psychological attitudes.

Visit the site.

Shinto Web Site

TOOLS

--GoFish: Media Search Engine(second citation)

GoFish is a search engine that searches over 12 million media files: audio, video, mobile, and games.

Give it a try. In Beta.

GoFish

--CiteULike

CiteULike is a free service to help academics to share, store, and organise academic papers that they are reading. When you see a paper on the web that interests you, you can click one button and have it added to your personal library. CiteULike automatically extracts the citation details, so there's no need to type them in yourself.

Because your library is stored on the server, you can access it from any computer. You can share you library with others, and find out who is reading the same papers as you. In turn, this can help you discover literature which is relevant to your field but you may not have known about.

CiteULike

--Yahoo Images

This site provides "photos and illustrations from all over the Web." Yahoo
claims it provides access to over one billion images.

Yahoo Images

--QuackTrack

QuackTrack is "the world's largest browsable blog index330,000 links to 85,000 blogs in a thousand categories." In Beta.

QuackTrack

Libraries / Knowledge Management

--Changing Patterns of Internet Usage and Challenges at Colleges and Universities

Read the abstract for this article:

Increased enrollments, changing student expectations, and shifting patterns of Internet access and usage continue to generate resource and administrative challenges for colleges and universities. Computer center staff and college administrators must balance increased access demands, changing system loads, and system security within constrained resources.

To assess the changing academic computing environment, computer center directors from several geographic regions were asked to respond to an online questionnaire that assessed patterns of usage, resource allocation, policy formulation, and threats. Survey results were compared with data from a study conducted by the authors in 1999. The analysis includes changing patterns in Internet usage, access, and supervision. The paper also presents details of usage by institutional type and application as well as recommendations for more precise resource assessment by college administrators.

Changing Patterns of Internet Usage

--Libraries and National Security: An Historical Review

Read the abstract for this article:

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks launched the United States into a new era of defensive preparedness. The U.S. federal government’s first legislative action in October 2001 was the passage of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act). The USA PATRIOT Act introduced a greatly heightened level of government intrusion into many aspects of ordinary life, including library use. When, in the past, authorities called upon the library profession to serve national security interests in these ways, individual librarians and the profession as a whole have experienced an evolving tension between their roles as guardians of public well–being and as protectors of intellectual freedom. This is a fundamental issue, one that reflects upon the profession’s view of itself and of its place in American life. Librarians once again face this challenge. An inquiry into the similarities and differences with the past may aid in suggesting a response that is both professionally sound and individually appropriate.

Libraries and National Security

--Pulling Sense Out of Today's Informational Chaos: LiveJournal as a Site of Knowldge Creation and Sharing

This article discusses how blogging, via LiveJournal, is a new and more applicable way of managing information and creating knowledge in today’s society.

Pulling Sense Out of Chaos

PEDAGOGY

--Anonymity is Part of the Magic: Individual Manipulation ofComputer-Mediated Communication Contexts

This article examines the power of anonymity in learning situations.

Anonymity is Part of the Magic

--Interview: McKenzie Wark, Academic Rogue

McKenzie Wark teaches media and cultural studies at the New School University in New York City. His most recent book is A Hacker Manifesto (Harvard University Press, 2004). For many years he was an active participant in the nettime listserve, and also on fibreculture, syndicate, and a few other experiments in "collaborative filtering." A Hacker Manifesto grows out of that experience, and attempts to provide a theory to go with the practice of creating and sharing free knowledge in a digital gift economy. He is the author of a number of other books, including Dispositions (Salt Books, 2002) and Virtual Geography (Indiana University Press, 1994) and was a co–editor of the nettime anthology Readme! (Autonomedia).

This interview was conducted with First Monday’s Chief Editor Ed Valauskas, stimulated in part by A Hacker Manifesto.

McKenzie Wark

GAMING AND EDUCATION

--The Nature of Computer Games

This article is research on impacts of human cognitive play.

The Nature of Computer Games

ACADEMIC CULTURE

--Six Myths about Creativity

Little is known about day-to-day innovation in the workplace. Where do breakthrough ideas come from? What kind of work environment allows them to flourish? What can colleagues do to sustain the stimulants to creativity -- and break through the barriers?

This article from Fast Company discusses six myths about creativity in work environments.

Six Myths about Creativity

DIGITAL CULTURE

--Love Relationships on the Internet

How many people do you know who fall in love with others on the Internet and frequently use language involving phrases such as soul mates, reason for living, or my greatest love when speaking about their new relationships? These people, who are not sexual predators, became wholly entangled in thinking about the time they could re-connect on their computer screens with their cyber-loves. Then a few weeks or a few months later, when you see one of these people again and enquire after his / her new love, you are told “Oh him; it didn’t work out” or “Don’t mention her name again--ever.”

What is going on here?

This article, "I’m Not in Love…Just a Little Bit Limerent…", offers a perspective on the phenomena of cyber love affairs.

I’m Not in Love…Just a Little Bit Limerent…

This is a 4-page PDF file.

--Public Displays of Connection

Read the abstract for this article:

Participants in social network sites create self-descriptive profiles that include their links to other members, creating a visible network of connections — the ostensible purpose of these sites is to use this network to make friends, dates, and business connections. In this paperwe explore the social implications of the public display of one’s social network. Why do people display their social connections in everydaylife, and why do they do so in these networking sites? What do people learn about another’s identity through the signal of network display? How does this display facilitate connections, and how does it change the costs and benefits of making and brokering such connections compared to traditional means? The paper includes several design recommendations for future networking sites.

Public Displays of Connection

This is a 12-page PDF file.

--Her So-Called Digital Life

Read the beginning of this article from Wired Magazine, 2 December 2004.

Mary Hodder owns two printers, but hasn't used either one in more than a year. To tell the truth, she can't remember the last time she printed something.

Instead, Hodder, a 37-year-old internet consultant, spends almost her entire life on-screen. She carries her laptop almost everywhere she goes, traipsing from cafe to cafe looking for Wi-Fi to hook into. She downloads pirated movies and even television shows off the net, shops there and pays all her bills, too. Her blog, Napsterization.org, explores how technology alters the media landscape. Although technically based in the San Francisco Bay Area, she lives, works and plays on the web.

Her So-Called Digital Life

--Artists, Musicians, and the Internet

Surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project show there are 32
million Americans who consider themselves artists and about 10 million earn
at least some level of compensation from their performances, songs, paintings, videos, creative writing, and other art. The report includes special analysis of “Paid Artists,” those respondents who are musicians, writers and filmmakers and earn some income from their art.

A Project survey in November and December of 2003 finds that substantial numbers of these artists use the internet to gain inspiration, build community with fans and fellow artists, and pursue new commercial activity.

# 77% of all artists and 83% of all Paid Artists use the internet, compared
to 63% of the entire adult population.

# 52% of all online artists and 59% of Paid Online Artists say they get ideas and inspiration for their work from searching online.

# 30% of online artists and 45% of Paid Online Artists say the internet isimportant in helping them create and/or distribute their art.

# 23% of all online artists and 41% of Paid Online Artists say the internet
has helped them in their creative pursuits and careers.

# 3% of all online artists and 6% of Paid Online Artists say the internet has had a major deleterious effect on their ability to protect their creative works.

Read the full report:

Artists, Musicians, and the Internet

This is a 61-page PDF file.

STUDENTS

--Study Looks at How Latinos Identify Themselves Racially

This study is by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Study Looks at How Latinos Identify Themselves Racially

I acquired this resource from Academic Impressions, 6 December 2004.

GAMING IN EDUCATION

--Ludologica

Launched in 2003 by Edizioni Unicopli, an Italian publishing house in Milan, Ludologica. Videogames d’autore is a new series of books that honour the most significant video games of the last 40 years. Available in two formats (Monographs and Readers), these volumes discuss video games from a broad academic and critical perspective, setting characteristics, themes and techniques in context and exploring the game's significance. Focusing on one game on one series rather than an entire genre, the books dispense with the standard historical background that players know already, and cut to the heart of the game.

Ludologica

--Species of Spaces

This thought-provoking article on the reality of video-game space for learning and living begins with the following quotation by Marshall McLuhan 1964.

"The artist tends to be a {person) who is fully aware of the environment.... The artistic conscience is focused on the physics and social implications of technology. The artist builds models of the new environments and new social lives that are the hidden potential of new technologies"

The bibliography for the article is also interesting:

Augé, Marc (2002) In the Metro. Minneapolis: Univ of Minnesota Press.

Augé, Marc (1999) An Anthropology for Contemporaneous Worlds. Stanford:
Stanford University Press.

Augé, Marc (1995) Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity(Cultural Studies). New York: Verso.

Bernardi, Sandro (2002) Il Paesaggio nel Cinema Italiano Genova: Marsilio.

Lefebvre, Henry (1991) The Production of Space. New York: Blackwell Publishers.

Massey Doreen (2000) Cities Worlds. New York: Routledge.

Newman, Kim (2002) Apocalypse Movies. London: St. Martin's Press.

Olalquiaga, Celeste (1991) Megalopolis: Contemporary Cultural Sensibilities Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Sorkin, Michael (1992) Variations on a Theme Park : The New American City and the End of Public Space. New York: Hill and Wang.

Virilio, Paul (1991) The Aesthetics of Disappearance. Cambridge: MA: Semiotext(e)/MIT Press.

Kathy Willie , interlibrary loan person extraordinaire, can assist you with accessing any of these texts.

Species of Spaces

BLOG GRAB BAG

--Literary and Cultural Studies Mailing List

The English Department at the University of Pennsylvania hosts an electronic mailing list ( cfp@english.upenn.edu) and website http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/) for calls for papers on English and American Literature and Culture. They encourage conference or panel organizers and volume editors to find the largest possible audience for their announcements by posting them on this list and Web archive.

To subscribe to the list, address an E-mail message to upennlistserv

--Open Source Art

OPENSOURCE is an alternative art space accommodating a variety of non-traditional, community-oriented art projects and events within Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

This site is an interesting role model for digital exhibition.

Open Source Art

--Cup of Chicha

Cup of Chicha is an arts and culture weblog, started in January of 2002 by Nathalie Chicha, a MFA candidate in fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In the left column, you’ll find commentary on literature, art, film, TV, and critical theory. In the right column, you’ll find navigational links and a link “cupboard,” a constantly updated index of interesting sites and articles. Click on for a list of recommended weblogs and use the to access Cup of Chicha’s past entries.

Cup of Chicha

--Free Credit Reports

Soon you’ll be able to get your credit report for free. A recent amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months. The FCRA promotes the accuracy and privacy of information in the files of the nation’s consumer reporting companies. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, enforces the FCRA with respect to consumer reporting companies.

Free Credit Reports

--Government Gazettes Online

Government Gazettes, which are published by federal governments worldwide, are the means through which the government can communicate to officials and the general public. Although most countries publish a gazette, their regularity and content varies widely, which is noted in the description of each gazette. Gazettes are useful not only to monitor the actions of the government, but also as primary source documentation in research.

Government Gazettes Online

I acquired this resource from Marlaine Block's NeatNewStuff, 3 December 2004.

--The Footsteps of Alexander the Great

This is the Web site for the PBS series.

The Footseps of Alexander the Great

--Paintings by Lyn Nance-Sasser

Nance-Sasser's current medium of choice is acrylic on canvas and her subject matter is very personal. Her latest work has been centered around the concept of being "blind-sided" by life,surprised by events that are out-of-our-control. Her method is to paint potentially threatening situations within a style that is reminiscent of children's art of the 1950s. Consequently the work tends to "blind-side" each viewer as they are drawn into an innocent looking canvas only to realize that there is an impending incident of doom depicted.

The illustration above is titled "The Happy Little Bird" (acrylic on canvas, 36"x28", © 2001) or L'oiseau est I. (just kidding!).

Lyn Nance-Sasser

Pig Racing

Class, who is the audience for this sporting event?

I did not know pigs race but apparently they do, according to this article from The Independent(London, England), 4 September 2004.

Read the article, "Saddle-up, Whether it be on a Bull, a Horse or a Sheep, at the Annual Colorado State Fair."

Saddle-Up

I acquired this resource from Chief Blogging Officer, 3 December 2004.

--Digital Apoptosis

This is a wonderful digital photography blog.

Digital Apoptosis

Until next week!

Blog editor

Image Credits

--"Christmas Tree at Rockefellar Center, New York City,http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/
--"Creativity," 480 x 480 pixels - 13k
www.seoconsultants.com/ just-say-no/images/log...
--"Cup Of Chicha Logo," http://www.nchicha.com/
--"Cyber LOve," users.aol.com/millsian/ Images/cyberlove.gif
252 x 43 pixels - 4k
--"HackerManifesto,http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/WARHAC.html
--"The Happy Little Bird", Acrylic on canvas, 36"x28", © 2001 http://www.wtbw.net/geisha
--Japanese Carp Windsocks," http://www.k111.k12.il.us/king/images/banner.jpg
--"Knowledge," www.robotwisdom.com/ ai/timeline/pergamon.gif
268 x 267 pixels - 16k
--"Mario Brothers Solid Landscape," http://www.rgbproject.com/
--"Pigs Racing," http://www.highbeam.com/library/doc0.asp?
--"QuackTrack," http://quacktrack.com/
--"Tools," 150 x 150 pixels - 12k
www.architectureweek.com/ topics/digital.html

Faculty Development News This Week:

CONFERENCES

--TCC Worldwide Online Conference : "LOOKING BACKWARDS OR INTO THE FUTURE?"

This event is hosted by University of Hawai'I Kapi'olani Community College in association with Osaka Gakuin University, Japan and in partnership with LearningTimes.org.

April 19-21, 2005

Pre-Conference Dates: April 5-6, 2005

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The TCC Online Conference coordinators invite faculty, support staff,
librarians, counselors, students, administrators, and consultants to
submit proposals for papers, discussions and other presentations that
address the impact of technological change, the Internet, and other
technologies on how we teach and learn in colleges and universities
worldwide.

Here are some questions to help formulate your presentations:
- Keeping up with the times -- what's the best way to do this?
- Are learning communities real or imagined? How do we sustain them?
- Which is best: face-to-face, hybrid, or online learning?
- Is there a future for learning objects, open-source software, blogs,
wikis, e-portfolios, etc, that are being touted today?
- What is the status of educational technology around the globe? Is
there a way to help one another?
- What was our profession like ten years ago and how does it compare with
today?
- What are some useful models for delivering student services online?
- How do students react to online learning and online student services?
- How will recent copyright and intellectual property laws change the way we
teach and learn? Do they need to be adjusted?
- How can today's technology accommodate diverse cultural backgrounds and
learning styles?
- Where is instructional technology headed?
- What are some technologies that we need to watch out for?
- What staff and faculty training or professional development models have
met with success?
- Is global learning a reality or myth?
- Is online learning a fad or paradigm (or both)? What is the new paradigm
for learning?
- Does the Internet help or hinder learning?
- What are the lessons learned from the past 10 years of instructional
technology and the Internet?
- Should an institution adopt a single courseware management system?
Who should determine this - faculty, IT staff or administrators?
- Are we out-of-control with technology spending? Could it be better
utilized for other institutional purposes? Did we invest our funds wisely?
- What's the best way to provide for disability access for students?
- What are the barriers to the digital divide and how can we overcome them?

PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS

In your proposal, be sure to describe the content, goals, and expected outcomes of your presentation. For details on submitting your proposal,
go to the conference home page and click on "Proposal Submission" link: Proposal Submissions

Submissions should be in the form of a paper, discussion, poster
session or pre-conference tutorial. For details about presentation
formats, see: Presentation Information.

The deadline for proposals is December 31, 2004.

Mailing address: TCC Worldwide Online Conference (IMTS), University ofHawai'i, Kapi'olani Community College, 4303 Diamond Head Road, Honolulu, HI 96816, USA.

TCC Worldwide Online Conference

TECHNOLOGY

--IT Issues & Strategic Viewpoints in Higher Education

This article explores a study recently conducted to identify today's most pressing IT issues at colleges and universities. The study also compares the 2004 results to the 2003 results.

IT Issues

DISTANCE EDUCATION

--Assessing Teaching Presence in a Computer Conferencing Context

This paper presents a tool developed for the purpose of assessing teaching presence in online courses that make use of computer conferencing, and preliminary results from the use of this tool. The method of analysis is based on Garrison, Anderson, and Archer's [1] model of critical thinking and practical inquiry in a computer conferencing context. The concept of teaching presence is constitutively defined as having three categories - design and organization, facilitating discourse, and direct instruction. Indicators that we search for in the computer conference transcripts identify each category. Pilot testing of the instrument reveals interesting differences in the extent and type of teaching presence found in different graduate level online courses.

Assessing Teaching Presence

--Assessing Social Presence in Asynchronous Text-based, Computer Conferencing

Instructional media such as computer conferencing engender high levels of student-student and student-teacher interaction; therefore, they can support models of teaching and learning that are highly interactive and consonant with the communicative ideals of university education. This potential and the ubiquity of computer conferencing in higher education prompted three of the authors of the present paper to develop a Community of Inquiry model that synthesizes pedagogical principles with the inherent instructional and access benefits of computer conferencing (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000). The present article explicates one element of the model, social presence. Social presence is defined as the ability of learners to project themselves socially and affectively into a community of inquiry. A template for assessing social presence in computer conferencing is presented, through content analysis of conferencing transcripts. To facilitate explication of the scheme and subsequent replication of this study, selections of coded transcripts are included, along with inter-rater reliability figures. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications and benefits of assessing social presence for instructors, conference moderators, and researchers.

Assessing Social Presence

This is a 38-page PDF file.

--Critical Thinking, Cognitive Presence, and Computer
Conferencing in Distance Education

This article describes a practical approach to judging the nature and quality of critical discourse in a computer conference. A model of a critical community of inquiry frames the research. A core concept in defining a community of inquiry is cognitive presence. In turn, the practical inquiry model operationalizes cognitive presence for the purpose of developing a tool to assess critical discourse and reflection. Encouraging empirical findings related to an attempt to create an efficient and reliable instrument to assess the nature and quality of critical discourse and thinking in a text-based educational context are presented. Finally, it is suggested that cognitive presence (i.e., critical, practical inquiry) can be created and supported in a computer conference environment with appropriate teaching and social presence.

Critical Thinking, Cognitive Presence, and Computer Conferencing in Distance Education

This is a 24-page PDF file.

--Methodological Issues in Analyses of Asynchronous, Text-Based Computer
Conferencing Transcripts

Read an excerpt from this article:

This paper will explore the particular difficulties that researchers have
encountered and the advances that they have made in the struggle to extract
meaning from conferencing transcripts. It is not meant to be a meta-analysis of
results, but rather a review of the methodology. Our intent is to document the
evolution of content analysis techniques as they have been applied by us and
other researchers to analyze transcripts of asynchronous, computer mediated
conferencing in formal educational settings. Hopefully, this will facilitate the
larger goal of improving the quality of teaching and learning using this medium.
To accomplish this, we have reviewed a sample of 14 studies that are commonly
referenced in the literature (see Table 1). We hope that this will provide
subsequent researchers with a privileged starting point for their studies and
refine the application of this powerful technique.

Methodological Issues

TOOLS

--CiteULike.org

CiteULike is a free service to help academics to share, store, and organize academic papers that they are reading. When you see a paper on the web that interests you, you can click one button and have it added to your personal library. CiteULike automatically extracts the citation details, so there's no need to type them in yourself

CiteULike

I acquired this resource courtesy of Research Buzz, 29 November 2004.

--FeedDirect.com

FeedDirect is the premier provider of high quality general and consumer news headlines for websites.

We gather and categorize millions of articles from thousands of news sites worldwide and deliver them as topic-based Webfeeds. FeedDirect enables webmasters to enhance the experience of their sites’ visitors and increases loyalty by providing relevant, topical and up-to-date news on any area of interest.

FeedDirect is able to provide its high-quality service free of charge by including contextual, text advertisements within the Webfeeds.

FeedDirect.com

--Web Site Reviewer

This site analyzes and critiques websites; looks for errors and problem areas; and make suggestions for improvement.

Web Site Reviewer

--Game: LEGO Worldbuilder

LEGO Worldbuilder

--Guide to Convert VHS to DVD

This guide will provide the following:

The right hardware to convert VHS to DVD

How to make sure you have enough memory

Editing techniques to create professional looking video

Professional DVD burning techniques

Software tools for making DVDs

How to connect your VCR or camcorder to a PC

The best software for authoring DVDs

The guide costs $17.00

Convert VHS to DVD

--INCSUB

INCSUB is a new service set up partly through a frustration with current mainstream online teaching and learning technologies (& the pedagogies they inflict!) and partly through a desire to explore the possibilities that wikis, weblogs, open source CMSs and other emerging technologies offer {teachers}. Get in touch today and see what we can do for you

INCSUB

STUDENTS

--Community College Students Taking More Years to Complete Course Work

This article from USA Today, 28 November 2004, is devoted to the situation of many community college students today. Here is an excerpt from the article:

The notion that community college students arrive fresh out of high school, study for two years and move up to a four-year college is quietly dissolving, a survey suggests. Instead, the experience for millions of students now involves spending four or more years piecing together an education at several colleges, and many never even earn an associate's degree.

Two-thirds of community college students attend only part time, and a handful try out several colleges or enroll in two simultaneously, according to the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, out today. Meanwhile, nearly one in six students already have a bachelor's degree. "People just don't go to college like they used to," says Kay McClenney, the survey's director and an adjunct professor at the University of Texas-Austin, which sponsors the survey.

Read the article:

Community College Students

DIVERSITY

Fight Hate and Promote Tolerance

This Web site is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

There are resources here for campus, work, and community.

Tolerance

--Ramayana

Ramayana is a beautifully illustrated comic book featuring historical and mythological characters. It has also been instrumental in imparting education on Indian culture to people worldwide.

Read the book online:

Ramayana

ONLINE CULTURE

--A Nation Online: Entering the Broadband Age

A Nation Online: Entering the Broadband Age is the sixth report released by the U.S. Department of Commerce examining the use of computers, the Internet, and other information technology tools by the American people. Based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey of 57,000 households containing 134,000 persons, this report provides broad-based and statistically reliable information on the ways that information technologies in general, and broadband more specifically, are transforming the way we live, work, and learn.

This is a 37-page PDF file. Also available in hypertext and WORD.

Entering the Broadband Age

BLOG GRAB BAG

--Which Operating System are You?

Take the test and find out which one you are.

Which OS Are You?

I acquired this resource from Geomblog, s7 November 2004.

--Science Daily

This site provides links to the most recent research news in science.

Science Daily

--Washington Calligraphers Guild

Founded in 1976, the Washington Calligraphers Guild is a nonprofit organization of approximately 500 American and international lettering artists of all skill levels, from professional scribes to enthusiastic beginners and even some non-calligraphers who appreciate the lettering and book arts.

Washinton Calligraphers Guild

This resource acquired from lii, 24 November 2004.

--NASA Goes Hypersonic

This is all about the NASA ScramJet.

This is interesting not only for the technology (Mach 9.8) but for how tax dollars are spent. See the video: NASA Video.bmp

NASA Goes Hypersonic

--Lorum Ipsum

Have you ever wondered why Web developers dummy the Latin text, Lorum Ipsum, into their pages?

Well, this site will interest you. Read on:

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Find out more:
Lorum Ipsum

Fact Monster

FactMonster is an atlas, almanac, encyclopedia, and dictionary.

Fact Monster

Until next week!

Blog Editor

Image Credits

--"American Association of Community Colleges Logo," 201 x 222 pixels - 5k
www.wscc.edu/links/
--"Ansel Adams Quote," http://www.calligraphersguild.org/scripsit.html
--"English Holly," 250 x 250 pixels - 20k
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Holly
--"Fact Monster Logo," http://www.factmonster.com/index.html
--"Happy Hanukkah,"230 x 297 pixels - 9k
www.waldoward.com/ cards/hanukkah.gif
--"NASA ScramJet," http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43-main.html
--"NASA Video," http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43-main.html
--"Nation Online Cover," http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/dn/index.html
--"Pilgrimage," www.dropbears.com/.../ medieval_costume.htm
--"Ramayana Cover," http://www.askasia.org/students/virtual_gallery/exhibitions/
--Tolerance," http://www.tolerance.org/campus/index.jsp
--"Truus fan e Wel," Steven L. Sobel Canon
--"XP operating System," http://bbspot.com/News/2003/01/os_quiz_results.php

Faculty Development News This Week:

PUBLISHING

--Chapter Submissions: Globalized E-Learning

As e-learning is globalized via information and communication technologies (ICTs), consumers of e-learning (purchasers, instructors, and end-users) are more likely to encounter courses intended for another culture. For example, Western cultural groups such as the United States, Canada, and Europe currently produce the majority of e-learning courses; however, the largest, fastest-growing consumer groups live in Eastern countries such as China, Japan, and India. Subsequently, e-learning producers and educators will be challenged with providing courses that

(1) Accommodate the different learning needs of multicultural,
multinational consumers
(2) Promote equitable learning outcomes for targeted learners, and
(3) Promote education and technological literacy which, subsequently,
improves socio-economic opportunities in developing nations

Proposals for chapters must be submitted no later than February 28, 2005.

CONTACT:

Andrea Edmundson, Ph.D.

Director, eWorld Learning

Email: Andrea Edmundson

Voice Mail: 1.520.620.2010

DIVERSITY

--Intercultural Literacy

This blog is rich with resources.

Intercultural Literacy

PEDAGOGY

--Authentic Assessment Toolbox

This site is devoted to showing instructors how to create authentic tasks, rubrics and standards for measuring and improving student learning.

The site has useful templates to assist in course design, too. One example appears below. I found it helpful for a recent qualitative research assignment I designed for English 1108:

Traditional ------------------------------------------- Authentic

Selecting a Response ----------------------------------- Performing a Task

Contrived -------------------------------------------------------------- Real-life

Recall/Recognition ------------------------------ Construction/Application

Teacher-structured ------------------------------------ Student-structured

Indirect Evidence ------------------------------------------- Direct Evidence

Authentic Toolbox Assessment

--The Ten Personae of a Brainstorm Facilitator

Read the introduction to this article:

Facilitating a brainstorming session is a multi-faceted task, requiring a variety of sensitivities. In reality, the skilled brainstorm facilitator is more like 10 people than one, exhibiting a broad spectrum of personalities as needed in order to get the job done. Take a few minutes now to review the following "persona checklist." Note which personas are your strengths and which are your weaknesses. Then rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 to determine which areas you need to work on

The author, Mitchell Ditkoff ,president of IdeaChampions, lists ten:

--Conductor

--Alchemist

--Dancer

--Mad scientist

--Diamond cutter

--Actor

--Environmentalist

--Officer of the law

--Servant

--Stand-up comic.

Intrigued? Read the article:

Ten Personae

--Ten Technologies That Will Change the Way We Learn

According to the author of this article, here are the ten key technologies that will
change the way we learn in the future:

*Search technologies

*Data visualization tools

*Blogs - Direct publishing and content aggregation tools

*Audio and video - increased use of audio and video as communication channels for small publishers

*RSS - content syndication, aggregation, re-use

*P2P - private and public file sharing networks

*Unlimited storage - on the desktop and online

*Unlimited bandwidth - Wifi - WiMax

*Real Time Collaboration Tools

*Collective and Collaborative Filtering - human spontaneous cooperative technology like del.icio.us and FURL.

Read the article:
Ten Technologies That Will Change the Way We Learn

Knowledge Management / Libraries

--Online Computer Library Center (OCLC)Top 1,000 Books

Founded in 1967, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. More than 50,540 libraries in 84 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials.

This list is the top 1000 titles owned or licensed by OCLC member libraries.

Top 1,000 List

I acquired this resource from Marlaine Block,
NeatNewStuff,23 November 2004.

Campus Culture / Community

--The Return of the Civic Square

When I came across this article, I thought of the new mall at IHCC.

The Return of the Civic Square

GAMING IN EDUCATION

--"But the Screen is Too Small..." Sorry, “Digital Immigrants” – Cell Phones – Not Computers – Are The Future Of Education

This article begins with this quote:

“The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed”. ~William Gibson

"But the Screen is Too Small

This is a 4-page PDF file.

--Web Site: Social Impact Games

Read about this site's purpose:

The site's purpose is to unite projects, information, and people in a single place and to be a catalyst for ideas and innovation in spreading the wider uses of games as a language for more than just entertainment.

Social Impact Games

--Journal: Game Research

What is this journal about?

Game Research attempts to bring together knowledge on computer games from the areas of art, business, and science. Traditionally such cross-communication has been sparse to the detriment of all involved.

On this site we present short introductions to important areas and provide access to a database of links and references to literature. This database is kept up-to-date with the help of users on this site, who are strongly encouraged to submit references. User-added references are immediately added to the database. We do, however, reserve the right to delete irrelevant entries.

Game Research

--List of Tools for Designing and Building Games

This list includes free software, close to free, and fee software.

List of Tools

This is a 2-page PDF file.

--Interactive Pretending

This is an overview of simulation.

Interactive Pretending

This is an 11-page PDF file.

--The Seven Games of Highly Effective People

This article starts out with the following quote:

“How do lions learn to hunt?” – Chris Crawford, Game Designer.

Intrigued? Read the article:

The Seven Games

This is a 4-page PDF file.

--Online Discussion: What Can Education Learn from the Video Game Industry

Thought-provoking article.

What Can Education...Industry?

STUDENTS

--Twitch Speed

This article provides a valuable perspective on how Generation X and Millenials process information, tackle projects, and interact in the work world.

Twitch Speed

--The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government

According to this site, NASA is one of the best federal agencies to work for.

Read more:

The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government

I acquired this source from LII NEW THIS WEEK, 24 Novenber 2004.

--Online Book: A Student's Guide to Liberal Learning

This book is a free download (58-page PDF file),

A Student's Guide to Liberal Learning

--Online Book: Choosing a College

Here is an excerpt from the Introduction:

With all the college guides already loading down the shelves of bookstores, what excuse can there be for publishing yet another one? This guide does not even pretend to compete with, or substitute for, those huge college guides that are chock-full of statistics about hundreds of colleges. Neither does it attempt to match the vignettes of particular colleges and universities found in some other guides. The purpose of this book is to start you out at square one, before you even know what questions to ask, what colleges to read about, or what statistics to look up. Step by step, it builds up your knowledge of what colleges, universities, and engineering schools are all about, how and why they differ—and, most important of all, what those differences mean to you when choosing where to apply. This is a how-to-do-it book, designed to help you find the kind of college that will fit your own particular goals, ability, pocketbook and way of life. It tells you what to look for during a campus visit, how to read a college brochure so as to get what you need to know out of it, regardless of what message the college itself is trying to send, and—at the end of the process—how to evaluate the admissions and financial aid offers that come in, before deciding where you really want to go.

Download the book for free!

Choosing a College

--The Importance of the Humanities

The author of this article discusses the significance of becoming more fully human through the studies one undertakes.

The Importance of the Humanities

This is a 5-page PDF file.

--Finding and Following the Core

The author in this article offers guidance on choosing college classes wisely and lays out a plan to build a traditional core program that offers a lifetime benefit.

Finding and Following the Core

This is an 8-page PDF file.

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AND LEARNING

--What Can You Learn from a Cell Phone?--Almost Anything!

The subtitle of the article is "How to use the 1.5 billion computers already in our students’ and trainees’ pockets to increase learning, at home and around the world."

What Can You Learn from a Cell Phone?

This is a 9-page PDF file.

SERVICE LEARNING / CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

--The Ladder of Participation

This ladder conveys the stages of citizen power and control.

Read more about it:

The Ladder of Participation

I acquired this resource from ELearnSpace, 22 November 2004.

--Democracy Lab

Read an excerpt from the introduction to this civic engagement Web site:

Responding to the growing interest in curriculum-based civic education, Democracy Lab helps you integrate a powerful civic education module into a wide variety of existing courses without starting over from the ground up. To carry civic education a step further on your campus, Democracy Lab trains and mentors student leadership teams for local citizen politics.

Find out more:

Democracy Lab

BLOGGING

--Blogging in China

This article, The 'blog' revolution sweeps across China, appears in the 24 November 2004 issue of newscientist.com.

Blogging in China

--Princeton Progressive Review

This is a new student blog at Princeton University.

Princeton Progressive Review

TOOLS

--Google Zeitgeist

Google Zeitgeistis a page devoted to user search patterns, trends, and surprises according to Google.

Google Zeitgeist

--Modding: The Newest Authoring Tool

Read an excerpt from this article:

Modding, or mod-making, provides an excellent opportunity for forward-thinking {instructors} to produce new types of training modules that are likely to draw the interest, and even applause, of {students} in ways that their current authoring tools don’t, and can’t.

Modding

This is a 6-page PDF file.

--Kolabora

Kolabora showcases all of the best collaboration and conferencing and live presentation technologies that offer an immediate access, free-trial, or download of their tools. From this site you can directly try-out and review any of the best tools available in the market.

Kolabora

--Elite Journal

Elite Journal is a new blog platform, although the developer does not like the word blog. Read what he / she has to say:

The goals of Elite Journal are to be a simple to install and use personal online journal (aka "blog", but I dislike that word). Elite Journal is written in Ruby, using the Ruby on Rails framework.

Features of Elite Journal:

Threaded comments

Post categories

Links sidebar

News sidebar

Post drafts

TrackBack pings

RSS2.0 feed

Textile or Markdown, via RedCloth

Free download.

Try it!

Elite Journal

BLOG GRAB BAG

--State by State: The Bill for the Iraq War

This is an interactive map detailing the cost for the Iraq War, state by state.

State by State

--Which State is the Most Libertarian?

See how Minnesota ranks.

Which State is the Most Libertarian?

--The Simple Living Network

Read an excerpt from the Welcome page of this Web site:

Simplicity is not about poverty or deprivation. It is about discovering what is "enough" in your life -- based upon thoughtful analysis of your lifestyle and values -- and discarding the rest.

Tempted?

Find out more:

The Simple Living Network

--Sweet Yumiko

This site showcases the Japanese pop manga art of Yumiko Kayukawa, who is pictured below.

Here is one sample of her work,veggieburger:

Sweet Yumiko

I acquired this resource courtesy of BoingBoing,24 November 2004.

--Web Site: Krappy.com

What is this Web site about? Read on:

Hi! Krappy is a gift shop that celebrates the unpopular. If you're looking for a gift that will raise eyebrows and lower standards, welcome!

Here is a sample of the wares Krappy.com sells:

This is a cigarette lighter. Read the ad copy, which is not politically correct, to say the least.

Hi Ho Eyes-a-glow

Let's face it, smoking can be a real drag, and this 12cm tall x 14cm long cigarette lighter won’t improve things. But if you’re looking for features then hi-ho will light up your life. It’s a fire breathing, eyes glowing, tail moving, gas refillable, fake brass horse jumping over a miniature plastic mountain, that emits horse like sounds when activated. And if you don’t smoke and thinking about colonising a small third world country, then this is the ideal trinket to transfix the natives with [batteries included].

Visit the site for insight into one branch of popular culture.

Krappy.com

Until next week!

Blog editor

Image Credits

--"Cell Phone," 218 x 384 pixels - 29k
www.cellphoneinfo.com/
--"Chinese Blog," http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~takoyaki/imgs/200403.gif
--"Chinese Calligraphy," www.hvzc.org/ images/mujo.gif
196 x 295 pixels - 21k
--"Hi-Ho, Eyes-a-Glow," http://www.krappy.com/product.asp?pID=20&cID=3
--"Jobs," 171 x 145 pixels - 8k
www.york.ac.uk/depts/ maths/geninfo.htm
--"Kolabora Logo," http://www.kolabora.com/tools.htm
--"Ladder of Participation," http://partnerships.typepad.com/civic/2004/11/ladder_of_parti.html
--"Public Space,"www.odpm.gov.uk/.../ odpm_urbpol_027112-6.jpg
631 x 510 pixels - 20k
--"Top 1,000 Books List," http://www.oclc.org/research/top1000/
--"Veggieburger," http://www.sweetyumiko.com/artwork.php
--"Yumiko Kayukawa," 210 x 147 pixels - 20k
www.shootinggallerysf.com/. ../BioKayukawa.htm

Faculty Development News This Week

What a way to start off the week:

I include this album cover for the great photo; I have no idea about the quality of the music.

Photo acquired from Dwayne and Shadow

Conferences

--World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications,
Montreal,Canada June 27-July 2, 2005

This annual conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications/distance education.

For more information, visit the Web site:

World Conference on Educational Multimedia

Publishing

--Call for Articles: Academic Exchange Quarterly
Focus: Two -Year / Community Colleges

The research and scholarship on community colleges continues to be a growing and developing area. Those individuals who participate in the daily goings on of the community college have rich voices that can add much to the ongoing dialogue. The general goal of this special issue is to provide a rich dialogue of intersecting voices from the community college arena. A secondary aim of this topic will be to assemble scholarly papers that focus on summarizing the beliefs and perspectives of those who often know the community college best, but write about it the least--its practitioners: faculty (both full-time and adjunct), its staff, its administrators, and its students (through empirical study). Contributions are envisioned, which range from original research to editorial perspectives. Heading "Two-Year Colleges" includes community colleges, technical colleges, junior colleges, accredited two-year proprietary schools, and branches of four-year colleges that focus on associate degree education.

Topics Of Interest:

Contemporary Issues in the Community College

Curriculum

Faculty Issues

Hot Topics (E.g., adjunct faculty, baccalaureate degree, developmental education, distance education and the new technologies, nursing shortage, service learning)

Multiple Missions

Leadership

Student diversity (E.g., ESL learners, racial and ethnic minorities, students with disabilities, reverse transfer students)

Teaching and Learning

Papers may be in the form of case studies, reflection papers, empirical research reports, or scholarly theoretical papers.

Who Should Submit:

Higher education faculty and graduate students, whose area of research focus and/or graduate study is the community college. Community college practitioners: faculty, staff, and administrators. Please identify your submission with keyword: COMMUNITY

Submission deadline:

Regular deadline - any time until the end of May 2005. All accepted submissions will be published in the Fall issue.

Short deadline - June or July. All accepted submissions will be published in the Fall issue or in later issues.

Submit early and have an opportunity to be considered for Editors' Choice and/or Monthly Exchange

Visit the Web site:

Academic Exchange Quarterly

Knowledge Management / Libraries

--Unskilled and Unaware of It

Read the abstract for this article:

People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.

Read the article:

Unskilled and Unaware of It, Journal of personality and Social Psychology (December 1999).

I acquired this resource from hebig.org/blog, 5 November 2004.

--The Social Life of Paper

How transcribing on paper helps us think and manage information.

This article is a review of the book The Myth of the Paperless Office (M.I.T Press,2001) ISBN# 0262194643

The Social Life of Paper

This is from The New Yorker,25 March 2002.

Pedagogy

--E-Learner Producers: Microsoft's Director of Learning and Strategy Evangelism

Read these excerpts from Internet Time Group, a blog devoted to the business and implementation of adult education and technology. Jay Cross, the founder of Internet Time Group, has worked for the University of Phoenix.

Excerpts:

Microsoft is a significant player in IT learning, with 1800 partners worldwide, 9.6 million customers served, about a million training events in last 12 months, and 2.7 certifications granted.

Bob Mosher, Director of Learning and Strategy Evangelism, for Microsoft Learning, claims the learner population has changed. Learners are no longer "newbies"; they don’t want courses. Instead, today’s learners are building on foundation knowledge, not starting from scratch. They want to fill in the gaps, not take a course.

Read more:

E-Learning Producers

I acquired this resource from OLDAILY

--Assessing Learning Outcomes in Online Education

This article promotes assessment involving third-party reviewers, attention to appropriate psychometric measures, and statistical tests of transformed qualitative data, which can lead to pedagogical insight,accurate assessment of traditional versus online learning, and opportunities for curriculum improvement.

Assessing Learning Outcomes in Online Education

This is a 26-page PDFfile.

--The eLearning Edge: Leveraging Interactive Technologies in the Design of
Engaging, Effective Learning Experiences

Read the abstract:

Interactive technologies are sometimes considered a panacea for a wide variety of learning objectives, when in reality they are really most relevant to particular needs. In fact, interactive environments often allow for learning experiences that are difficult to achieve in traditional environments.

This paper considers when eLearning might be most appropriate as part of a blended solution and which specific interaction types might be most suitable for different objectives.

Keywords: eLearning, learning, interactive, interaction, games, simulations, collaboration, constructivist, education, learning theory, training.

The E-Learning Edge

This is a 10-page PDF file.

--IdeaFisher: Creativity and Mind-Mapping Blog

Although this is a commercial site for IdeaFishing, a corporation in Vancouver, Washington, it still has valuable links and information regarding creativity, problem-solving and mind-mapping. There are free downloads, too.

Creativity and Mind-Mapping Blog

--How Weblogging Helps You Think Like a genius

Another reason to blog!

This is from the blog Dewayne and Shadoow

How Weblogging Helps You Think Like a genius

--Philosophical Toy World

Here is the introduction to this site:

The ideas expressed here have no wish to be well balanced, or even sane. They are a call to reinvest moving images with the marvelous , not through other worldly flights of imagery but through seeing the very production of the moving image in a new light. They are a cry for a multiplicity of "cinemas", past, present and future.

Like philosophical toys themselves, these texts and images are designed to be playful and provoke thought. Inspired in part by the education rebus books of the 19th century described by Walter Benjamin, in which wherever possible, nouns are represented by small illustrative pictures or icons. He notes that the word rebus can be traced back not to res (thing) but to rêver (to dream). Here conceptual constellations, will project you on a journey crisscrossing a host of parallel cinemas.

One marvel from the site:

Philosophical Toy World

Online Culture

--Being Analog

The author of this article, Jay Cross, considers digital vs. analog, especially in relation to education and learning.

Tempting quote:

Real life is analog. Situations are continuums, not just the extremes. There's a whole world between the poles.

Being Analog

--12 Variables for Understanding Online Communities

This article attempts to discuss some of the qualities that define virtual communities. Applicable to online course communities.

12 Variables

This is from Mindjack, 24 November 2003.

--Alpha Bitches Online: The Dog Genome for the Next Generation

This is an audio lecture by the intellectually provocative Donna Haraway, professor at UCLA.

The lecture was presented at the IV European Feminist Research Conference "Body Gender Subjectivity. Crossing borders of disciplines and institutions" that took place in Bologna, Italy, September 28 - October 1, 2000.

Alpha Bitches Online

Tools

--Sxip

Read the overview for this open source platform:

Sxip Overview

The Sxip Network is a simple, secure and open platform for true digital identity. Sites that implement Sxip support are able to easily provide features like single sign-on and automatic form fill.

Sxip users gain control over their online identity, conveniently and safely navigating Sxip-enabled sites.

Website developers implementing Sxip benefit by being able to share a platform built on open standards and supported by open source tools.

Sxip

--Video Postcard

This utility allows anyone with a camcorder, on a Windows machine can send a video recording in "seconds". If you do not have a camcorder, you can send an audio-only postcard.

Video Postcard

--User Interface Test Resources

Enter a URL to see how well a site meets user interface specifications.

User Interface

--Learner's Library

The Learner's Library is a simple and intuitive search tool that locates relevant material from a comprehensive list of current full-text academic journals and news sources and automatically generates the citations needed for their use in a term paper, article or coursepack.

Learner's Library

--Word Press

WordPress is a blogging platform.

Wordpress's motto: Code is poetry. Valid XHTML and CSS.

WordPress

--NotifyList

NotifyList is a free, one-way mailing list platform.

NofifyList

--DiaryLand

DiaryLand is a platform where you can create your own online diary. You can even lock it!

DiaryLand

--SquidFingers

This site provides free background patterns for Web sites and blogs. If you do decide to use one, however, a If you do decide use one, a credit link back to Squidfinger's site would be appreciated.

Here is an sample of one of Squidfinger's background patterns:

SquidFingers

--Google Scholar

Google's just launched 'Google Scholar', a new search engine looking up within scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research.

In beta.

Google Scholar

Students

--Learning: Generation Does Matter

This article discusses how age demographics should be considered when designing course material.

Learning: Generation Does Matter

--Has Growing Up Digital...Affected Skill Sets?

Although this article is geared toward educating and training military personnel, it is applicable to any educational setting for Generation X students.

Has Growing Up Digital...Affected Skill Sets?

Blog Grab Bag

--Gender_Cyber_Archive

This site is a compilation of essays and audio lectures (ram format) on feminism, technology, and patriarchy.

Gender-Cyber_Archive

I acquired this resource from CultureCat, 14 November 2004.

--The Enforcer: Interview of Michael Koubi, Shin Bet Security/ Intelligence Agent

Michael Koubi worked for Shin Bet, Israel's security service, for 21 years and was its chief interrogator from 1987 to 1993. He interrogated hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including renowned militants such as Sheikh Yassin, the former leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, who was killed in an Israeli attack this year. He claims that intelligence gained in interrogation has been crucial to protecting Israel from terrorism. He tells Michael Bond, the interviewer, that, given enough time, he could make almost anyone talk.

Interesting article for insight into intelligence community.

The Enforcer

This is from New Scientist, 19 November 2004.

--9Interviews

These nine mini-videos spoof the MLA interview process / ritual. Enjoy!

9interviews

--Substitute Punctuation for the Internet

These are "passive-aggressive communication expressions."

zefrank.com

--Nintendo Game Controller

This game controller will assit you in fighting neighborhood zombies--better known as Resident Evil. It even sounds like a real chain-saw.

Nice, huh?

I acquired this resource from BoingBoing, 14 November 2004.

Until next week!

Blog editor

Image Credits
--"Album Cover," http://www.shadowcentral.net/, 13 September 2004
--"Alpha Bitch," 180 x 103 pixels - 2k
whywork.us/.../categ_ id/3/parent_ids/0
--"Being Analog," http://www.linezine.com/5.2/articles/jcba.htm
--"Circular Fish," http://www.turbulence.org/Works/illusions/index.html#
--Google Scholar Logo," http://google-blog.dirson.com/post.new/0200/
--"Image #136," http://squidfingers.com/patterns/
--Nintendo Chain-Saw Controller,"
--Substitute Punctuation for the Internet," zefrank.com/
--"Today's Learners,"http://metatime.blogspot.com/2004/10/elearning-producer-2004.html