21st century learning | It's About Learning

Most Professors Use Social Media – Sort of

Dwayne Harapnuik — May 5, 2010 — Leave a comment

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…

Apple – The Mobility Company

Dwayne Harapnuik — May 4, 2010 — Leave a comment

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.

In 21st century learning, iPad, iPhone iPad, iPhone, mobile, mobile learning

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint

Dwayne Harapnuik — April 27, 2010 — Leave a comment

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?hp

Enemy Lurks in Briefings on Afghan War – PowerPoint – NYTimes.com via kwout

In the New York Times article We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint Elisabeth Bummiller points to a series of articles and exchanges with Military leaders that show that the use of PowerPoint as a significant internal threat. Gen. James N. Mattis explicitly states that:

PowerPoint makes us stupid

Similarly General McMaster said in a telephone interview:

It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control…Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.

Perhaps the most telling tidbit from the article is the notion that:

Senior officers say the program does come in handy when the goal is not imparting information, as in briefings for reporters. The news media sessions often last 25 minutes, with 5 minutes left at the end for questions from anyone still awake. Those types of PowerPoint presentations, Dr. Hammes said, are known as “hypnotizing chickens.”

This isn’t the first or last article dealing with the challenges of PowerPoint. There is even a Wikipedia entry for Death by PowerPoint and the following youtube video by Don McMillian Life After Death by Powerpoint 2010 that point to the fact that most people use PowerPoint wrong.

[youtube]KbSPPFYxx3o[/youtube]

So if PowerPoint presentations are so poor or ineffective then why are we still using them in our classrooms, boardrooms other venues. Alexi Kapterev offers a Death by PowerPoint presentation via slideshare.net that attempts to answer this question. Kapterev argues that bad or ineffective PowerPoint is due to a lack of:

Significance
Structure
Simplicity
Rehearsal

I find it interesting that we keep on coming back to problem with significance or a lack of significance and am reminded of the Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance post in which I point to Micheal Wesch’s article with he same title. We will we (the academy) learn.

In 21st century learning crisis, Learning, powerpoint, signficance

Lectures as an outmoded form of education and news

Dwayne Harapnuik — April 23, 2010 — Leave a comment

Jeff Jarvis’ TEDxNYED lecture about lectures as an outmoded form of education and news.
Please note there are three instances where Jeff uses foul language for effect (I wish he wouldn’t) so please review the video before you pass it on to anyone else.

Please Note: I am not endorsing Jarvis’ use of foul language and thought about not putting the video up–BUT the message he is relaying is very important–important enough to deal with his use of expletives.

You can view the script of his presentation at: TEDxNYED: This is bullshit

[youtube]rTOLkm5hNNU[/youtube]

In 21st century learning, Learning 21st century learning, Change, educational reform, Innovation, Learning