TLT at Franklin & Marshall

Textbook Publishers Prep For The E-Future

Oscar Retterer — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:12:06 +0000

Textbook publishers sign on with Apple to take advantage of iPad.

A Disrupted Higher-Ed System

Oscar Retterer — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:44:13 +0000

Not a week seems to go by without another major announcement that has the potential to disrupt a large part of higher education. Are traditional colleges ready?

[Source: Chronicle of Higher Education]

50 new tech tools you should know about

Charles Wachira — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:20:29 +0000

You may have dozens of apps on your phone and scores of websites bookmarked on your laptop, but that doesn’t mean you have all the latest tech tools at your fingertips.

New mobile apps, services, social networks and other digital tools pop up so frequently that keeping up with them is a nearly impossible task. Just when you think you’re up to date, something newer and hipper comes along.

But before you wave the white flag, let us help. Once again we have sorted through hundreds of new and emerging tech tools to bring you 50 of the most buzzworthy ones. (Last year’s list can be found here.)

ProfHacker: The Challenges of Digital Scholarship

Oscar Retterer — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:20:57 +0000

Adeline Koh reports on the 2012 Modern Language Association preconference workshop on evaluating digital work for promotion and tenure.

[Source: Chronicle of Higher Education]

Tenured Professor Departs Stanford U., Hoping to Teach 500,000 Students at Online Start-Up

Oscar Retterer — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:11:09 +0000

Sebastian Thrun, a research professor of computer science at Stanford, revealed that he has departed the institution to found Udacity, a start-up offering low-cost online classes. He made the surprising announcement during a presentation at the Digital – Life – Design conference in Munich, Germany. During his talk, Mr. Thrun explored the origins of his popular online course at Stanford, which initially featured videos produced with nothing more than “a camera, a pen and a napkin.”

[Source: Chronicle of Higher Education]

MIT Mints a Valuable New Form of Academic Currency

Oscar Retterer — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:34:20 +0000

MITx is the next big step in the open-educational-resources movement that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology helped start in 2001, when it began putting its course lecture notes, videos, and exams online, where anyone in the world could use them at no cost. The project exceeded all expectations—more than 100 million unique visitors have accessed the courses so far.

Now MIT has decided to put the two together—free content and sophisticated online pedagogy—and add a third, crucial ingredient: credentials. Beginning this spring, students will be able to take free, online courses offered through the MITx initiative. If they prove they’ve learned the material, MITx will, for a small fee, give them a credential certifying as much.

[Source: Chronicle of Higher Education]

Facebook Shunners: Is Resistance Futile?

Oscar Retterer — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:50:40 +0000

As Facebook becomes increasingly ubiquitous, there remains a group of people who, for a variety of reasons, have resisted signing up or have shut down their accounts. But can people truly avoid a site that has become inextricably linked with how people live and work?

[Source: Knowledge @ Wharton]

ProfHacker: GradeBook Pro, or One Grading App to Rule Them All

Oscar Retterer — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:45:07 +0000

This reviewer of the iPad app GradeBook Pro finds it to have many useful features.

[Source: Chronicle of Higher Education]

iPad a solid education tool, study reports

Charles Wachira — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:25:22 +0000

More and more schools are jumping on the digital bandwagon and adopting iPads for daily use in the classroom. Apple’s education-related announcements last week will no doubt bolster the trend, making faculty tools and student textbooks more engaging and accessible.

But today another data point emerged, demonstrating that the iPad can be a valuable asset in education. In a partnership with Apple, textbook publishers Houghton Mifflin Harcourt performed a pilot study using an iPad text for Algebra 1 courses, and found that 20% more students (78% compared to 59%) scored ‘Proficient’ or ‘Advanced’ in subject comprehension when using tablets rather than paper textbook counterparts.

Apple Dives Deeper Into The Digital Textbook Market

Oscar Retterer — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:20:58 +0000

Apple unveiled iBooks 2, which Apple called “a new textbook experience for iPad,” and iBooks Author, which helps users to create textbooks. Both products will be available for free in Apple’s App store.

[Source: Wall Street Journal]