Media Awareness Network

"Resources and support for everyone interested in media and information literacy for young people"

URL: http://www.media-awareness.ca

"The Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use"

"The Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use provides research and outreach services to address issues of the safe and responsible use of the Internet. We provide guidance to parents, educators, librarians, policy-makers, and others regarding effective strategies to assist young people in gaining the knowledge, skills, motivation, and self-control to use the Internet and other information technologies in a safe and responsible manner."

URL: http://cyberbully.org

"Educators Set Proficiency Level for Information-Literacy Tests"

"A panel of educators has ratified a document, released this week, that sets passing scores on two information-literacy exams administered by the Educational Testing Service. The standards are intended to help college officials assess the abilities of their students to sift through and analyze electronic data. About 85 colleges give one or both of the tests to their students. For the basic skills test, the panel said a passing grade should be at least 165, out of a perfect score of 300. About 24 percent of first-year community college students and 39 percent of freshmen at four-year colleges have achieved this level of proficiency, according to the document. Students taking the advanced test should receive a score of at least 575; the lowest possible score is 400, and 700 is the highest. About 27 percent of college juniors and seniors have achieved this skill level, according to the document."

URL: http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2781&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Referred by: Wired Campus, The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Canadian University Offers Students Ability To Highlight Lecture Videos"

"Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada has deployed an online video portal that lets students view, index, annotate, remix, search, and share class lectures. Although the school has been offering streaming video for three years, the new portal, run on the Gotuit platform, implements more interactive features."

URL: http://www.campustechnology.com/articles/58803
Referred by: Campus Technology
Go to the Carleton University Television video portal

"The Future of Web 2.0: An interview with WSU's Gary Brown"

"Web 2.0 is changing the landscape of higher education IT and the application of learning technologies. Washington State University's Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology Director Gary Brown explains why he thinks we're moving from collaborative learning environments (CLEs) and ePortfolios, to personal learning environments (PLEs) and worldware."

URL: http://www.campustechnology.com/articles/58872
Referred by: Campus Technology Newsletter

"More Colleges Show Interest in Hooking Up With YouTube"

"Today Research Channel, a nonprofit consortium of colleges and universities that runs a TV channel featuring videos of campus events and lectures, started a page on YouTube, joining a growing number of colleges and educational organizations using the popular video-sharing site.

Since we wrote about professors on YouTube, officials from three different colleges have asked us, via e-mail, who to call at YouTube to find out more about setting up a YouTube channel. “I am having trouble contacting YouTube about signing up,” said one. Indeed, the site seems to offer no information about how to become an academic partner, and so far officials from the company have not answered follow-up questions from The Chronicle about the project.

It is not even clear how many colleges have set up channels. It turns out that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has one, though the company did not mention it when supplying a list of college YouTube channels to The Chronicle last month.

Meanwhile, several academics gathered the other day at the DIY Video Summit to discuss the social impact of Internet video, especially the kind of homemade creations made by Internet users around the world (some of them professors). Naturally, some video from the event is available online."

Implication for research in the digital world...

URL: http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2740&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Referred by: Wired News, Chronicles of Higher Education

"THE HALO VIDEO GAME SERIES IS TAKING OVER ALL FACETS OF LIFE"

"In the five months since the release of Halo 3, students have logged millions of hours playing online, reports Katie Ash for Digital Directions magazine. The volume of time has parents and teachers hoping that there may be skills honed by Halo 3 that are similar to that which students learn in the classroom. Elliot Soloway, a computer science and education professor at the University of Michigan says that kids learn mostly from the inherent collaboration required to effectively master the online version of the game. It is particularly interesting because games like Halo are "self-organizing, so...kids are putting together their own teams and are responsible for managing their own learning," says Kurt Squire, an assistant professor of educational communications and technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While collaboration, teamwork and organization are necessary skills, the game may not translate this practice to the classroom. For example, there was a push to teach students computer programming because it reinforced linear thinking. However, researchers later found that teaching programming skills simply produced lots of computer programmers and not necessarily better linear thinkers. If video games are to have any educational value, it seems likely that teachers must adjust their instructional strategies in accordance. Still, as is, Halo 3 may exhibit some untapped educational potential, as the environment created in the game is one that realistically adheres to the laws of physics. As a result, some players have performed virtual physics-based experiments."

URL: http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2008/01/23/3games.h01.html
Referred by: PEN Weekly NewsBlast