Class notes are epistemologically weird. On the one hand, they feel quite private, but, on the other, if your understanding of what went on in class is too idiosyncratic, then you’re likely to do poorly on exams. (Also, to whatever extent a class is a shared intellectual enterprise, there should be at least *some* common understanding of what has gone on during our time together.) It can be hard to improve one’s notetaking skills, because it’s traditionally such an individual practice. Enter the wiki.

An outlined CPD workshop with commentary worth reading. Or commentary on CPD workshops worth reading with an outline of a workshop.

Three notes: 1. These tweets aren't teaching; they are a teacher asserting her authority. Looks like teaching, but it isn't. 2. They aren't very good tweets. There's nothing memorable in them, nor concision, just reduction to the simplistic. 3. They sanction a misunderstanding of writing, and of teaching and learning. In a tweet, they fail to enact what they assert. And a comment: What do you do the second day of class? 

Covering organization, access, frequency, substance, archiving, and assessment

The iPhone antenna brouhaha is proving to be a good opportunity for teaching a lot about antennas, testing, and scientific methodology. After the battle is over, it will be good to return to the flak to do a rhetorical study.

Superb primer on designing text for devices - with links. Read it

Starts to move elearning away from learning objects and modules and towards PLEs

A close and thorough look at three or four ways of analyzing and grouping students. Opens up a general critique of the method and those who base their assumptions and actions on the results. Valuable for FYC.

""There's this expectation that your No. 1 job is to pander to this exotic alien consumer," says Mr. Vaidhyanathan, an associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. "At that point, you cease being a teacher and you are simply selling yourself to an audience that might not be interested in buying.""

says Mr. Vaidhyanathan. "Generational thinking is just a benign form of bigotry, in which you flatten out diversity. This is debilitating to the job of trying to work with young people."

"Some folks are using this as a template and a cookbook," Mr. Bonner says of Millennials descriptions. "It makes it very difficult to see and understand variations because people who don't fit the recipe may be viewed as outliers. That anesthetizes nuances."

A fast but insightful critique of the current thinking on open content. Learning consists of weaving together coherent (personal) narratives of fragmented information. The narrative can be now created through social sensemaking systems (such as blogs and social networks), instead of centrally organized courses. Courses can be global, with many educators and participants (i.e. CCK08).

University of Reading. "In an environment where there are many ways to publish material quickly and easily, such as social networking sites ... and all manner of other ways of expressing yourself on the web, people can find that they have their 'web presence' spread across multiple sites. What's more, other people might post something about you without you knowing about it - and it might be done quite innocently.

We are developing a number of short exercises and learning materials to help people think about what sorts of issues there are about DI."

Light-hearted consideration of Palin's speech patterns broken into phrases.

Martin Weller on six principles to keep in mind while designing networked instruction.
1. <embed> is the universal acid of the web – we should build around it.
2. Simple with reach trumps complex with small audience.
3. Sharing is a motivation to participation - so make it easy and rewarding to do.
4. Start simple and let others build on top
5. Providing limitations frames input (Cf twitter, 12seconds, etc)
6. Complexity resides in the network not the application

Educase PDF. Overview.

Really just a technique or two > A better model for twitter integration was suggested which I quite like. This would involve defined periods when students were encouraged to ‘tweet’. For example, 20 minutes in you say to the students “for the next 3 minutes discuss with your neighbour the issues raised so far (or have a specific question you want them to answer). Please feel free to ‘tweet’ your thoughts or questions using the tag #xxxx”. The lecturer could then choose to take a couple of minutes to respond there and then or follow up after the class.

List of faculty at Marquette who are using twitter for classes and why. The usual reasons and uses. One warning to limit personal exchanges.

A recent re-covering of mainstream ideas, but more than enough to get a fresh take on wikis.

Sweeping

Yes. Professors should be holding students’ hands. We should be telling them how they should or shouldn’t learn. That’s why we get paid the small bucks, after all. Students and the general public might not appreciate it, but we actually spend years trying

Yes. Professors should be holding students’ hands. We should be telling them how they should or shouldn’t learn. That’s why we get paid the small bucks, after all. Students and the general public might not appreciate it, but we actually spend years trying to master the art of teaching. Most of us get pretty good at it. Many of us get fired if we don’t demonstrate competence at it.

I am responsible for the learning environment in my classroom. I have the power to make a student leave if she has been rude. I have the power to tell students not to use mobile phones or computers. If a student does not want me to take her to a new place, push on her beliefs, expose her to new facts and arguments, or maintain an environment that can ensure the greatest learning for the greatest number, she should drop my course (and probably out of the university).

how can faculty reveal more about themselves without compromising professional roles and responsibilities?

Suggestions on how to have students use wiki to create and refine class notes. Nice to see it here. I've been doing it in CWII for a year or two now.

The significance in these uses is tying twitter to sending to and from the cell phone,

Using Twitter to create community in the classroom

Virtual community / knowledge base. Also organizes face to face meetings and events. Often pages are more links to other sites (some vetted better than others) than developed knowledge.

Once again, how not to do DE

Colin Brooke. Argues for weblogs as a small world system. Touches on social practices. Ties to Will Richardson's Weblog-ed

University of York Computer Science Project
Jonathan Davies, Sept 2004

Doug Brent. Issues of IP, of textualizing courses for DE - course as thing - vs a course as a performance - an act. "Unless an instructor is uncommonly strong–willed, traditionalist or lazy, face–to–face courses evolve through a natural process of

Smart article focusing on metaphorical and metonymic relations between modes. good analysis, and good illustration of evalative approach

TA and faculty blog on teaching comp.

appropriating e-spaces already colonized by students may not be a Good Thing. Is a podcast really gonna get through?

OV of social software (wiki, tagging et al)

using wikipedia as a model for learning: educators create the materials ("neutral" of course) projects, and cohorts of students learn from pursuing the projects.

pdf

pdf

pdf

collection of articles on blogging from comp/rhet perspective

wikis in teaching comp