Archives For Learning

MediaWiseVideos offers the following:

From neurons to brain wiring, Dr. David Walsh gives an easy-to-understand tour of children’s and teens’ brain development and the impact of experience on the “wiring’ of their brains. Children are shaped by the stories they see and hear from parents, relatives, and teachers which pass on values, attitudes, and affect emotional and physical well-being. More than ever, media has become a powerful storyteller in children’s lives and raising healthy kids in the media age involves making wise media choices.

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I have been using Diigo for a while now because its social bookmarking capability is much more powerful than Delicious — and it syncs with Delicious but as the following video explains there is so much more to Diigo than just bookmarking.

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Seth Godin argues that Higher Education’s run of 400 years in the US is about to end for the following reasons:

  • Most undergraduate college and university programs are organized to give an average education to average students.
  • College has gotten expensive far faster than wages have gone up.
  • The definition of “best” is under siege.
  • The correlation between a typical college degree and success is suspect.
  • Accreditation isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.

While it is easy to agree with Godin and in particular the notion of accreditation promoting mediocrity for all but with universities controlling the parchment (degree granting) I don’t see this changing anytime soon. Sure, we have many wonderful examples of college dropouts doing exceptionally well (Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Marc Andreesen etc.) but these unfortunately the exception and not the norm. While I applaud the notion of DIY U and see its benefits we still live in a society that is dependent upon credentials.

Read the original post on Seth Godin’s Blog…

Marc Parry of the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that a Pearson national survey on social media use in Higher Ed reveals:

More than four out of every five professors use social media. And more than half of professors use tools like video, blogs, podcasts, and wikis in their classes.

Parry also reveals that only about 10 percent or 12 percent of survey responses represent “active” uses of social-media tools which means despite using these tool most faculty are only using these tools to passively convey information.

It is wonderful that faculty are at least using social media tools but very disappointing that they are only using them for passive means. Perhaps once they are comfortable with the tools the active uses may increase–time will tell.

One of the most interesting findings is that:

Professors with more than 20 years of teaching experience use social media only slightly less than do their younger peers.

This finding reconfirms additional research that shows there is very little age discrepancy in the adoption of online or technology based learning so we can’t use the “age” excuse any longer.

Read the full article…
Read the Pearson Social Media in Higher Education Survey press release…

AppleInsider reveals:

Apple jumps past Motorola to become biggest US phone maker

Motorola announced sales of 8.5 million phones in its spring quarter, dropping it below Apple’s record sales of 8.8 million iPhones and vaulting the Mac maker into position as America’s top phone manufacturer.

Apple announces iPad sales top 1 million in less than a month

“One million iPads in 28 days — that’s less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in a statement released Monday. “Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.”

In several group discussions at the Educause 2009 conference in Denver last November there were still many who questioned the wisdom of choosing the iPhone as the platform for a mobile learning initiative. Perhaps now with Apple taking the lead in smartphone sales and the recent success of the iPad these questions will not be as significant and we can focus more time in your discussion on how we can use mobile devices to enhance learning.