Students Mobile | Image Source : Mashable.com

The modern American school faces rough challenges. Budget cuts have caused ballooning class sizes,  many teachers struggle with poorly motivated students, and in many schools a war is being waged on distracting technologies. In response, innovative educators are embracing social media to fight back against the onslaught of problems. Technologies such as Twitter and Skype offer ideal solutions as inexpensive tools of team-based education.

Why force students to yawn over a textbook when a real-life native speaker is only a Skype call away? At Marquette University, Spanish students hone their foreign language skills with frequent webcam chats with their English-learning counterparts in South America.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of using Skype is the radical increase in motivation. A whopping 85.3% of Janet’s students kept in touch with their digital pen-pals outside of the classroom through Facebook.

While many schools around the country have declared all-out war on mobile devices, Wiregrass High School took a decidedly different approach, integrating cell phones into the entire educational experience. Students exchange questions and answers with their teachers via SMS and browse classroom blogs for additional instruction. Moreover, as an efficient collaborative tool, students can quickly trade notes or take a snapshot of the blackboard for later studying.

Many universities have internal e-mail systems and message boards. But getting students to routinely check these systems for updates can be a chore. As a college teacher myself, my students have been required to participate in group message boards, which is a poor substitute for genuine intellectual curiosity. As a solution, Leicester University in the UK turned to Twitter, hoping that the popular micro-blogging technology would encourage collaboration outside of class. Read more ……

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Apple Netbook | Image Source : Gizmodo.com

BAYBORO — Pamlico County Primary School students will have some of the latest technology at their fingertips when iPod touch devices from Apple Inc. are delivered to the school.

The Pamlico County Board of Education unanimously approved an informal bid on Saturday to purchase the devices and other Apple technology using part of a $1.25 million grant that came from Enhancing Education Though Technology and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act program dollars. Read more ……

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Image Source : Interawesome.com

TED Talks provide viewers with insightful and thought-provoking commentary and ideas. The contents of many TED Talks can be directly or indirectly applied to your classroom practices. While you’re on holiday break, you may want to watch one or all of these TED Talks. If you’re interested in learning more about using TED Talks in your classroom, check out Teaching With TED.

TED Talks directly about education.

• John Wooden on Winning vs. Success.
• Clifford Stoll Teaches Physics to Eighth Graders.
• Don’t Eat the Marshmallow
• Bill Gates Talks About Mosquitoes, Malaria, and Education.
• David Merrill Introduces Siftables
• Tom Wujec – 3 Ways the Brain Creates Meaning.
• Jimmy Wales – The Birth of Wikipedia.
• Julian Treasure – 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.

• How Cell Phones, Twitter, and Facebook Can Make History
• Matthew White Gives the Euphonium a New Voice
• Pranav Mistry – The Thrilling Potential of Sixth Sense Technology
• Benjamin Zander – On Music and Passion
• Dan Pink – The Surprising Science of Motivation
• David Pogue on the Music Wars

Read more ……

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Source : eSchoolNews.com

The automobile, moving pictures, personal computers, cell phones, and social networks—all of these technologies, once considered frivolous, have made such a huge impact on our culture that our daily lives would change dramatically without them.

Could 3-D video be next?

It’s a question made relevant by new improvements (and falling costs) that soon could make 3-D video commonplace in theaters, homes, and even schools.

Owing to rapid advances in technology, 3-D video already is taking cinema by storm—and mainstream use of 3-D video in the home and elsewhere isn’t far off. What’s more, advocates of 3-D video say it has the potential to revolutionize the way students learn.  Read more ……

How Shockwave 3-D Technology Works

In the past year or so, you may have heard about a new technology that lets you manipulate 3-D images over the Internet. Many Web sites have been using this sort of software for a while, but it has mostly remained a niche market due to a lack of universal 3-D viewer programs.

Macromedia, in conjunction with Intel, NxView and others, hopes to bring this technology to many more Web users with the newest versions of the Shockwave player and the Shockwave authoring program Director. Read more ……

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Digital Citizenship Today

Digitally delivered content is part of the fabric of students’ lives today. There is enormous access to content, yet it typically comes with many different underlying usage rights that few understand. Very few students are exposed in a positive way to how they can properly manage and use digital or commercial content – whether their own or others’; whether music, movies, art, software, or other creative material; and whether free, licensed, purchased, or subscribed.

The Digital Citizenship and Creative Content Curriculum program was developed to create awareness around the issue of creative content and to foster a better understanding of the rights connected with it. Ultimately, its goals are to instill in students an appreciation of the value that creative content has for the creator, and to establish a personal respect for creative rights in a way that changes their behaviors and perceptions about digitally delivered content.

Creative rights and the materials they protect are an important part of our culture. It’s crucial that students understand the options for managing content and respect the wishes of others regarding creative content — at a personal level that is meaningful to their everyday lives. Students interact online with music, movies, software, images, and other digital content every day.

Are they aware that these works are protected and that some of their uses may not be consistent with the creator’s wishes? Students themselves are often creators. Do they understand how creative rights are relevant to them? Where can they go to get information about appropriate online behaviors to help them make the right decisions for themselves and as citizens in a digital world? Download the full article 1 or Article 2

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Professor Derek Keats, of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, used the term in 2007 to apply to the use and impact on education of collaborative and personalized learning, reusable learning content, and recognition of prior learning (RPL) whether by formal or informal means. Keats explorations seems to have been focused on higher education. Dr. John Moravec at the University of Minnesota broadens this view, and describes Education 3.0 as a product necessary to support what he labels “Society 3.0″ — a near future paradigm of social co-constructivism, ambient technology, and propelled by continuous innovation at all levels of society.

Education 3.0 has also been a concept articulated on GETideas.org an online resource and community for education leaders around the world to engage in a dialogue on next generation education and learning systems. This site is a public service of the Cisco Global Education corporate social responsibility group[5]. The Education 3.0 concepts articulated on GETideas.org refer to a holistic, systemic approach to education transformation as applied primarily to K-12 education, and identifies the transformational qualities and strategies necessary across pedagogy and curriculum, leadership and governance, culture and infrastructure.  Source : Wikipedia

Four key components of Education 3.0

Education 3.0–which focuses on the individual learner, makes learning available at all times, and uses technology as a key driver and enabler–is built upon four pillars:

1. Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Assessment

This involves…

• • A student-centered, personalized approach to instruction;

• • Interdisciplinary and project-based work;

• • A 21st-century curriculum that integrates skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration into the core curriculum areas; and

• • Authentic assessments that measure these key 21st-century skills.

2. Infrastructure and Technology

This requires…

• • A forward-thinking technology vision, led from the top;

• • The creation of flexible learning spaces for students;

• • A robust IP network that can support several interconnected learning and administrative systems simultaneously;

• • Ubiquitous access to technology for all staff and students; and

• • Sustained, targeted, and integrated staff development in both technology and pedagogy.

3. Policies, Procedures, and Management

This includes…

• • A well-governed and managed system, with clear policies and procedures for using technology to transform education;

• • A “change management” plan to guide this educational transformation and ease the transition;

• • Data-driven accountability and decision-making; and

• • An integrated ecosystem of partners.

4. Leadership, People, and Culture

This requires…

• • Visionary leadership;

• • Excellent teachers, principals, and system leaders; and

• • An ambitious, collaborative, and innovative school culture.

Read more ……

Open University Malaysia (OUM) will be hosting the Ninth International Conference on Information (ICI9) this year. Our co-organisers are the Esterhazy Karoly College, Eger, Cadi Ayyad University Marrakech, Morocco and Delta Academy of Science, Egypt. The conference will be held in Kuala Lumpur from 12 to 13 August 2009

Innovation has, and will always be, a key factor for the progress of humankind. Being innovative is vital for getting ahead, including in higher education. Open and Distance Learning (ODL) is one such innovation that was borne to meet new global demands and break many barriers in higher education. With ODL and the technologies that come with it, learning can happen for anyone, anywhere, anytime.

This conference aims to bring together innovations and ideas in higher education unto one common platform. Innovators and practitioners will have a chance to share findings and experiences as well as explore the many technologies that have shaped, and will continue to influence, higher education and ODL.   Source : OUM