Creating Significant Learning Environments
(Source: USA College Today)
A well designed infographic can take a complex process and portray it in a way that can easily be followed. This infographic on the pros and cons of Social Media in Higher Education helps us understand that rapidly changing landscape of communication in Higher Education.
It is very interesting to see that faith based institutions are at the top of the list in all categories. Concordia has consistently been in the top 5 of Universities for several years.
Review the full survey results…
Temple U. Project Ditches Textbooks for Homemade Digital Alternatives – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education via kwout
Temple University gave 11 faculty members $1,000 each to create a digital alternative to a traditional textbook. The goal of this pilot project was to demonstrate the learning benefits of working with primary sources and other relevant materials and to also help students save money on textbooks.
Kristina M. Baumli, a lecturer in Temple’s English department offered the following summary of the project’s pedagogical benefits:
By requiring students to grapple with primary sources and find their own journal articles, she said, she could teach in a way that emphasized process rather than memorization of facts in a book.
Read the full Wired Campus article…
Read the Temple U blog post about the pilot project…
I really don’t enjoy Country Music and I am not one to wax or wain over the “good old days” BUT the message of this song is so significant that I wanted to pass it on.
MIT’s New Free Courses May Threaten (and Improve) the Traditional Model, Program’s Leader Says – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education via kwout
In an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education-Wired Campus blogger Jeffery Young, Rafael Reif, MIT’s provost stated:
My point is that for a while I view this as augmenting the education you get on a residential model. And yes, it may threaten, and if it does the residential model has to get better. Our objective is to actually use MITx to even increase further what we do on campus, to make it stronger and to be able to resist and survive and do very well in this potential disruptive situation.
To those who are stuck in the delivery mode of educational content MITx and all other forms of online learning or mobile will be a threat. To those who view online and mobile learning technologies as tools that can be used enhance learning this will be an opportunity to learn from the best and radically improve the academy. Well positioned and implemented mobile and online technologies can shift the delivery of content to outside of class (where it belongs) allowing the instructors and students to use valuable class time to go deeper and explore the application and integration of that content in meaningful ways.
Helping students to assess high volumes of information that are available through many digital means and also helping them make the meaningful connections which are essential to learning are a fundamental part of the roles instructors must play in 21st century learning environments.
