E-books

There is a lot of chatter being generated about e-textbooks, some positive and some negative. Ultimately its up to you to decide where you fall on the spectrum but I want to share my feelings from what I have seen so far. For me the best way to describe e-books is "Dynamic"! I want to highlight a few features which I find useful but if you have any questions please leave comment. 

With some of the ebook readers, you can bookmark, highlight, look up definitions and even take notes right within the book. To make things even more convenient, all of the notes and comments are displayed right in the table of contents, which has made it very easy for me to review at a later time.  Most e-book readers also have a search feature which helps when you are trying to find those few key words or sentences but aren't quite sure where in the book you read them. I know when I was a student, I always avoided writing in my paper textbook because any perceived damage really hurt the buy-back value. 

Another really great feature of some e-book platforms is that your reading can be synchronized between devices.  For example,  I've started reading a book on my iPad and was able to pick up where I left off, while waiting for an oil change, on my iPhone and when I got home and turned on my iPad, the ebook was exactly where I left off on my phone - very cool! 

The last feature that I would like to highlight is that e-books can contain rich media instead of just text and images. Some of the books we have seen have videos, 3D models, dynamic charts and graphs, and high resolution images embedded right within the text on the pages. This content provides students with new ways to immerse themselves in what they are learning.

E-books are new and their platforms are constantly getting better. Schools are starting to partner with e-book publishers and are able to get even greater discounts on books making them a very affordable. Here is a link to Educause's "7 things to know about the Evolution of the Textbook". The article includes a usage scenario and covers pros, cons and implications of this format. 

If you would like to learn more about e-books ask your Instructional Technologist or email itshelp@colgate.edu

Customization Is the Future of Teaching, Harvard Researcher Says

From THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
June 25, 2012

 

Rick Friedman for The Chronicle

Chris Dede (shown here on screen), a professor of learning technologies at Harvard, says classrooms of the future will have “a more complicated model of teacher performance that, when they know how to do it, teachers are going to appreciate.”

By Jeffrey R. Young
Most college courses are one-size-fits-all—a lecturer delivers the same information to everyone in the room, regardless of whether some students already know the material or others are utterly lost.
It doesn't have to be that way, says Chris Dede, a professor of learning technologies at Harvard University. He outlines a vision of how technology can help personalize learning in a new book that he co-edited, called Digital Teaching Platforms: Customizing Classroom Learning for Each Student.
His research focuses on elementary- and high-school classrooms, but he says the approach has implications for colleges as well. The Chronicle talked with Mr. Dede about his strategy, and why he sees big changes on the horizon. And edited version of the conversation follows.

Using Webex to Extend the Classroom

Webex is an online meeting tool. It supports 25 simultaneous video/audio connections and provides the ability to share individual user's applications and multimedia files. At Colgate we host meetings, academic classes, and office hours with Webex. We do not want to replace face time but for those times that you are away and still want to hold a class this tool is very useful. Here is a video of Professor Burnett using it for office hours.


If you want to know more about it contact itshelp@colgate.edu or visit your instructional technologist during office hours. Office hour Schedule.

Flipping/Inverting the College Classroom

Inverting the classroom is a form of blended learning which encompasses any use of Internet technology to leverage the learning in a classroom, so a teacher can spend more time interacting with students instead of lecturing. This is most commonly being done using teacher created videos that students view outside of class time.

The traditional pattern of college education has been to have classroom lectures, in which the professor explains a topic, followed by homework, in which the student does exercises. In flipped or inverted teaching, the student first studies the topic by himself, typically using video lessons created by the professor or shared by another educator, such as those provided by the Khan Academy.

In the classroom, the pupil then tries to apply the knowledge by solving problems and doing practical work.  The role of the professor is then to tutor the student when they become stuck, rather than to impart the initial lesson. This allows time inside the class to be used for additional learning-based activities.

Inverting the classroom allows more hands-on time with the instructor guiding the students, allowing them to assist the students when they are assimilating information and creating new ideas (upper end of Bloom's Taxonomy).


Robert Talbert, PhD, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Grand Valley State University presents a seminar on how he implements the inverted classroom.  "AMATYC Webinar: Flipping the College Classroom"

Watch in YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nRCeZh0sMQ