technology

Facebook as Professor's Office?

Cliopatria points to this New York Times article about how professors are utilizing social networking in a variety of ways. Recent graduates contacted me via Facebook as I was just exploring without really "friending" anyone and, so far, it's been an excellent way to keep in touch with them - esp. given that the accrediting agencies actually expect us to know where they are even after they leave us. From scanning the article, it is okay for the men to reveal more personal details but my guess is that the double standard still applies to female interaction with students.

Gaming for Life

This Forbes article notes:

It's a classic innovation--a novel way to use a tool created for an entirely different purpose, namely to have a good time. That's still the reason why most players come to "Second Life," but English-language instructors who spend time with students there say they're combining fun and learning--and getting excellent results.

Smallpox or Facebook?

From Slate Magazine: Smallpox or Facebook?

Text Generation Gap: U R 2 Old (JK)

This New York Times article assesses what many of us see on a daily basis - students so tuned into their gadgets that they don't interact as well with their immediate physical world, including while they are driving. Sadly, this means that a sometimes awkward stage in developing interpersonal skills in the physical world is pushed aside and many simply lack the understanding of knowing how their actions impact others around them, primarily in a negative way.

LibraryThing

LibraryThing is another form of social networking tool I've examined a bit after earlier mentions other places. However, I never seem to have time to go back to it. Maybe I need to approach it as topic-specific as I teach or research specific topics? Maybe that's the way to build it and/or make it a class project.

How to Use YouTube

Michael Wesch, an anthropology professor at Kansas State University is changing the way we examine and understand the larger internet as well as networking in the broader sense. This K-State blog entry has a link to his video presentation that is well-worth watching.

Online Exhibits

This AHA blog post points to increasing expanding uses of the web for disseminating history.

A YouTube for Documents?

From the Chronicle of Higher Ed:

A YouTube for Documents?

   

Borrowing a page from the popular video-sharing site YouTube, a new online service lets people upload and share their papers or entire books via a social-network interface. But will a format that works for videos translate to documents?

It’s called iPaper, and it uses a Flash-based document reader that can be embedded into a Web page. The experience of reading neatly formatted text inside a fixed box feels a bit like using an old microfilm reader, except that you can search the documents or e-mail them to friends.

The company behind the technology, Scribd, also offers a library of iPaper documents and invites users to set up an account to post their own written works. And, just like on YouTube, users can comment about each document, give it a rating, and view related works.

Also like on YouTube, some of the most popular items in the collection are on the lighter side. One document that is in the top 10 “most viewed” is called “It seems this essay was written while the guy was high, hilarious!” It is a seven-page paper that appears to have been written for a college course but is full of salty language. The document includes the written comments of the professor who graded it, and it ends with a handwritten note: “please see after class to discuss your paper.”

There’s plenty of serious material on the site, too — like the Iraq Study Group Report and an Educause report about the future of technology at colleges. —Jeffrey R. Young