Twitter is kind of like FaceBook’s little brother; these days every company, including my dry cleaner has a twitter account. This week I came across several articles about twitter. One article illustrated twitter benefits for educators, another profiles a professor using twitter in his higher ed classroom, and a third reports on a high school student who uses twitter to reprimand the governor (Spoiler: she gets in trouble, but then triumphs in the end, kind of). Personally, I primarily use twitter as a PLN (personal learning network), it allows me to efficiently stay abreast of current trends in educational technology (and generate these great newsletters)…..and last but not least there is the Va Tech professor who uses twitter in his classroom to create a more egaging environment and you uses YouTube to get Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen to stop by
BYOT
Bring your own technology. Again, another area we have explored previously in these newsletters, but now some pilot studies are starting to report results. and the early results seem promising. I believe growth in this area is eminent. Students today have these devices which are very powerful, and educators should utilize them to improve student learning. The problem of course is “how”. How to improve student learning with them. How to manage inappropriate behavior with them. How to keep students on task with them. Sounds like the same issues we try to solve in face-to-face instruction.
Things going on here
We are in the process of converting to a new system for creating and maintaining our web site. We are moving to a content management system, and are piloting this system now with the Special Ed group. Their web pages are currently running on this new system which allows departments to make quickly make changes to their pages, assign a hierarchy workflow to faculty members, and in the process create more dynamic sites. I will be meeting with department heads soon to discuss future roll outs and management of department pages.
Quick gift advice of the Week
With all the new technology out these days, what are the 5 best gifts for small children? Wired magazine nails this one.
Quick video conferencing tip of the Week
Google + actually has a really nice video conferencing feature built right in you can use to conference with up to 10 people. I have tried a number of products and Google+ works as well as any, plus it is free. Now they even offer bringing in phone participants.
Quick something of the Week
I don’t know, I just thought this was cool.
Quick digital fabrication article of the Week
Good article in the economist about DF. This is cutting edge technology is.
Quick Pic of the Week
Guess who got their tree this weekend!
